Accentuating the positive
Anderson, SarahANCIENT WISDOM, MODERN WORLD: ETHICS FOR A NEW MILLENNIUM
by Tenzin Gyatso, His Holiness the Dalai Lama
Little, Brown, 14.99, pp. 320
The Dalai Lama believes that all human beings share the same aims: the desire to be happy and the desire to avoid suffering. With this assumption, and I reckon it is a correct assumption for the majority of the world's population, he gives us his ethics for a new millennium. It is not necessary to be a Buddhist, or indeed to have any religion, in order to achieve the spiritual revolution he advocates, a revolution which would be a radical reorientation away from our habitual preoccupation with the self and a turning towards a concern for the wider community.
The Dalai Lama defines spirituality as those aspects of the human spirit such as love, compassion, patience, tolerance, forgiveness and harmony; things which bring happiness both to ourselves and to others. Because the Dalai Lama emerges as eminently human there is no sense that his thoughtful and caring way of life could not be applicable to our selfish and rather less thoughtful lives. All the qualities he proposes are achievable and are things we could practise daily by showing just a little extra thought for our fellow beings.
Not surprisingly he observes that those of us living in materially developed countries are less satisfied, less happy and often suffer more than those people in lesser developed countries; in the societies we have created, loneliness and alienation are rampant and we have made basic affection for other human beings harder and harder for ourselves. Science and technology give us instant results and so we have dug ourselves into a situation where immediate and visible outcomes are what we expect; this is the very opposite of a life which contains spirituality and prayer, which both have largely invisible and long-term benefits.
The emphasis of the new ethics is on being a good human being and although the Dalai Lama thinks it is probably easier to put these ethics into practice within the structure and rituals of a religion, he stresses that religion is not a necessary prerequisite for leading a good life. There is an important distinction to be made between religion and spirituality and his aim is to find a way to serve all humanity without necessarily having recourse to religious faith. We can do without religion, but his ethics do not allow us to do without the basic spiritual qualities.
There is hardly a moment in our lives in which we do not benefit or suffer from the activity of others; love and compassion by definition presume some level of concern for the well-being of others and altruistic actions can actually lessen our suffering. His advice is to try to avoid the damage caused by negative thoughts and emotions and rather to reinforce those positive qualities which are conducive to compassion. When our intentions towards others are good, any feelings of shyness and insecurity can be largely eliminated because we find that by abandoning our habitual preoccupation with the self barriers between ourselves and others cease to exist. The degree to which suffering affects us is largely up to us; we should learn to accept our fates with patient forbearance, but learn that the time of greatest difficulty can often be the time of the greatest gain in terms of wisdom and inner strength and see suffering as a transformative experience.
Ancient Wisdom, Modem World is a clearly written and straightforward book which, I think, achieves its purpose of approaching ethics based on universal rather than religious principles. If we could only follow the Dalai Lama's advice to the world for the new millennium and cultivate a commitment to the principle of universal responsibility and experiment with unconditional love, not only would we as individuals become happier and more compassionate but we would at the same time be making a significant contribution to the welfare of society. It was encouraging to feel, after reading the book, that any positive or compassionate action, however small, can and does make a difference and is therefore worth the effort.
Copyright Spectator Jun 5, 1999
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