Dalai Lama meets peace campaigners from Europe
The Dalai Lama today met a group of peace campaigners from Europe. Their leader, Sofia Stril-Rever from France, said that their hearts were filled with joy to meet the Dalai Lama again. She told him that they were inspired by the example he had set in service of humanity.
Sofia said that the group had taken part in the UN-endorsed Day of Conscience on April 5. The occasion was dedicated to establishing fundamental freedoms and human rights for all people without distinction. She asked the Dalai Lama how good conscience and love could contribute to lasting peace in the world.
The Dalai Lama said, “As human beings we all receive our mother’s love as soon as we are born. As young children we unhesitatingly play with other children without caring where they are from or what they or their family believe. This kind of openness is our basic human nature.”
The Dalai Lama said that as adults, too many of us see other people in terms of ‘us’ and ‘them’, basing our discrimination on secondary political or religious differences.
“If we are to contribute to peace among us, we must find ways to acknowledge that fundamentally, as human beings, we are all the same. We share common experience. We are born the same way and ultimately, we all die,” he added.
The Dalai Lama said, “Focusing on differences of nationality or faith just becomes an excuse to kill each other; it’s unthinkable. Even animals live together more peaceably. If things are to change, we eight billion human beings must learn to live together on this planet. We must recognise our common humanity. That is why, whenever I meet someone new, I always see him as another human being like me. Because of this, I recognise that we all belong to one human family.”
On the climate crisis, the Dalai Lama said that changes taking place seemed to be beyond our ability to control. “While we still have time, it will be sensible to cultivate a sense of brotherhood and sisterhood and help each other. We need to find a way to prolong basic human love our mother shows us at birth and extend it to others for the rest of our lives,” he added
