Celebrating the Monk of Compassion. 

Today July 6, 2020

by Ana-MaríaClasing

The XIV Dalai Lama’s 85^th birthday is yet another occasion to celebrate a wise man whose teachings today make more sense than ever.

'Unity in Diversity' is the title of one of his many books and teachings. The XIV Dalai Lama is a Buddhist scholar and a leading analyst of human behavior.

Today this statement: 'unity in diversity' seems important to us and resonates more sensibly. And also apparently the world does not consider union as a feasible possibility, since it sees it as a search for absolute equality between beings, the proposal made by the Dalai Lama is related to a union where diversity is observed and respected.

Buddhism speaks of the union of “skillful means with personal reflection / introspection”. Understanding by skillful means the effort made to ensure that our actions are always motivated by compassion.

And reflection/introspection as that critical faculty capable of responding to the different factors involved adjusting to ideals of non-violence in the context of the situation; it could be termed as the development of “wise discernment”.

In the use of these faculties (which are of special importance when there is no religious reference) a constant check of ourselves is involved in the questions: ¿are we open minded or closed minded ?, ¿is our perception a short vision term or a long vision term?, or ¿ are we only considering specific interests?,¿is it our genuine and compassionate motivation in relation to the totality of human beings?

The union of nations, for example requires a union referred to the individual intentions, to the emotional and mental state of each one at the moment of the action because it is from there where the greatest control is exercised and is the most significant element to the time to determine the ethical nature of our actions.

Human experience has shown that when our intentions are driven by envy, hatred and the desire to harm, even when they appear to be "constructive" or "inevitable," their impact will always be negative for  both ourselves and others.