Khan 1

Imran Khan

Dr. Jade Weimer

RLGN 1322

09 October 2019

Assignment 2: Buddhism

The Dalai Lama has three principal commitments that he lives by. The first one being the

promotion of secular ethics or universal values as he calls them. He believes that physical

comfort does not bring peace. Real peace is the peace of mind and even physical pain will not

disturb this sense of calmness. As human beings we always search for peace and harmony and

avoid pain, discomfort and suffering. It is our human nature to do so. So, the Dalai Lama

advocates the cultivation of being kind and warm-hearted along with greatly valued virtues such

as compassion, forgiveness, tolerance, contentment and self-discipline. Even a person with no

religious beliefs can attain inner peace if he tries to incorporate these virtues in his day to day

practices. The Dalai Lama is committed on expressing the importance of these virtues with

everyone he meets. From the textbook, we know about the Dhammapada which is a collection of

Buddhist sutras, it emphasizes importance of the pure mind. The mind is the source of all mental

actions, one’s happiness or suffering depends on his state of mind. The cultivation of good

virtues helps a man to pave the way towards this own mental peace. The Dalai Lama has been

awarded the Nobel peace prize for his non-violent struggles and travelled to more than 67

countries, received more than 150 awards for his messages of peace and non-violence. The

second principal commitment the Dalai Lama encourages is the harmony among world religions.

Every religion has its own philosophy but all of them have one thing in common which is the

potential to create good human beings. That’s why the Dalai lama values and respects all
 Khan 2

religions and their respective traditions and has held discussions with the heads of different

religions and participated in many events promoting inter-religious peace and harmony. He has

also been awarded numerous times for his contributions to this cause. The third and last principal

commitment of the Dalai Lama is the preservation of the Tibetan language and culture and also

the heritage Tibetans received from the masters of India's Nalanda University. As a Tibetan

himself, he also speaks for protection of Tibet's natural environment. On the 52nd Anniversary

of the Tibetan National Uprising Day, the Dalai Lama gave a speech where he talked about the

preservation of Tibetan culture. He stated that the Peoples Republic of China comprises of many

nationalities and enriched with diverse languages and cultures and protecting all of them is a

policy of the PRC written in the constitution. The teachings of Buddha along with the texts on

logic and theories of knowledge is only preserved on the Tibetan language. The knowledge

within the language has potential to contribute to the world peace. He also spoke against the

policy which is undermining the Tibetan culture and hinted that if this goes on in the long run, it

will amount to the destruction of humanity’s common heritage.