200 words
In the quote, The Dalai Lama states, “in general terms, all others’ desires are the same as mine. Every being wants happiness and does not want suffering.”(304)In the quote, he universalizes the want for happiness amongst all human beings. This universal want, transitions from an individual want or concern for the interest of oneself, into the interest of the whole group, humanity. I can agree with this notion, as it helps deflect the selfness away from an individualize or culturalized interest, to a greater concern for all. He also addresses the mental health of humanity and how we choose to deal with negative emotions such as anger, jealousy, and hatred. Sometimes and throughout history, that anger has transcended into violence and cruel motives towards other humans. “Instead, we lose control over our minds through hatred, selfishness, jealousy, and anger, we lose our sense of judgment. Our minds are blinded, and at those wild moments anything can happen, including war”(306)When I sit back and reflect on possibly being violent towards someone or coming into warfare with them it is usually because I have felt disrespected by them and see them as indifferent to me. When I reflect on human history, I usually see warfare created from greed or jealousy, painting the other side as indifferent to what they are, or I see it from the perspective of defending one’s beliefs against the other. I think that Dalai Lama is spot on in his teaching about respecting one another, instead of seeing each other as different and or superiors to each other. For when we respect one another, we allow people to truly be themselves, to coexist and come into harmony with one another. And so the preexisting qualities that must exist in order to have peace would have to be respect for one another and their way of life. If everyone had that compassion and understanding for others that are different from them than peace could exist. It is when we have lack of respect for other communities of people that we try to impose, undermine, rob, compete and lose sight of a peaceful world and lose touch of being a global community.
Barash, D. (2013). Approaches to peace: A reader in peace studies (3rd Ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Chapter 6: Peace Movements, Transformation, and the Future. A Human Approach to World Peace / Dalai Lama
