New Delhi: His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Tibetan spiritual leader who was addressing the 2010 Leadership Summit of the Hindustan Times, one of the India's leading newspapers, in New Delhi on Friday, called for making this the century of dialogue, unlike the previous 100 years which was marked by violence. "Any conflict cannot be solved by violence. The 21st century should be the century of dialogue," he added. The Tibetan Spiritual leader said that the 20th century was the century of violence. “According to some historians, over 200 million people were killed. This immense violence including nuclear weapons failed to bring any permanent peace to the world, so it was a waste. Our generation created that century of bloodshed, so it is now our responsibility to tell our children that violence cannot solve the problems,” His Holiness said.
His Holiness said that people run the world not governments and people can make the real change, "Whether this century should be peaceful or filled with bloodshed will ultimately depend on the people,” said His Holiness.
His Holiness said that real change starts from an individual then in the family and then the community and only then is there a possibility of a more compassionate world. His Holiness said that if we and the nations try to solve the problems through dialogue and not force there can be peace and thus happiness.
The Tibetan spiritual leader who was speaking on the art of happiness in troubled times explained there are two kinds of suffering in this world-the physical pain and the mental pain. His Holiness elaborated that the physical pain had subsided in the modern times due to economic progress and development of science and technology. However, the same could not be said about the mental pain which leads to unhappiness.
These days mental pain or stress is more due to competition and is more intense in cities like in Kolkata and Delhi whereas in rural areas physical difficulty is more while mental stress is less, therefore, the mental peace is the key to happiness, His Holiness said.
At the 2010 Leadership Summit, the Tibetan leader pointed out the importance of a peaceful mind. His Holiness said that if the mind is not at peace then one cannot see the reality and with unrealistic approach no problem can be solved. By using common sense, experience and through awareness one can train the mind and can keep it calm. While facing a problem, fear, anger, jealousy also comes in the way of seeing reality, he told the audience.
His Holiness said that man is social animal but cannot always live together due to short term intelligence and self interest. "Any social animal, like bees or ants, have no religion, constitution but they are together because nature created it that way. We too are social animals but because of our short term intelligence and self interest we are forgetting out basic nature."
