“...The Western/Modern world is doing a great job of educating the mind, but requires growth in educating the heart. Any modern tool can be positive or negative, good or bad; it simply depends on how we use it."
The world recently celebrated the 80th birthday of His Holiness Dalai Lama at the Global Compassion Summit. Play for Peace happily attended, participating in various events and discussions. In recognition of the work we did at the Climate Action Picnic (watch out for our blog of photographs of this event!), we received complimentary tickets to an exciting lecture taking place there: “His Holiness The Dalai Lama on Youth Leadership: Panel on The Significance of Education in Advancing Universal Human Values." We encourage you to watch the video of the event, which is available online through the UCI Media Services channel on YouTube: https://youtu.be/sM2jOhSeTBU. But for now, we’d like to share some of our thoughts and feelings on the panel.
A variety of PFP staff attended: 2 board members, 2 trainers, 1 PFP LA Club Mentor, and 1 LA Club Youth. The event started a bit late but went over for 2 hours and included 10 panelists of all ages, religions, and nationalities. The basic premise of the panel was the importance of educating people holistically: developing both mind and heart. Many spoke about the power of Buddhist teachings and psychology, both scientifically and spiritually. These teachings, rooted in the foundation of compassion, can help us transform the 21st Century. We admired the Dalai Lama's interactive approach to the conference: he had the panelists rethink the questions they had prepared for him. He had them ask their questions, and answer them themselves. It was very powerful to see people reach from within, and intuitively explore their questions, which addressed issues of morality and its relationship to technology, as well as the demographic of teaching compassion--when, in other words, does compassion education begin? The other point that stood out was the notion that the Western/Modern world is doing a great job of educating the mind but requires growth in educating the heart. Any modern tool can be positive or negative, good or bad; it simply depends on how we use it. Modern inventions can be wonderful: they can save lives or can destroy them.
This is why the Dalai Lama says that we need to “teach compassion.” A little compassion, after all, changes everything: anger, hate, war, revenge. This was incredibly empowering for PFP staff: since teaching compassion is already what PFP does, we felt even more motivated and even more validated in our mission. As Imroz Shah, our Global Operations Manager, noted: "It was illuminating to hear Dalai Lama explaining the need for compassion in action.” At PFP, we are part of a large global movement to teach compassion. Even our T-shirts at the event showcased our new motto: “Live laughter, choose compassion, practice peace.”
[gallery ids="3098,3082"] References HIS HOLINESS THE DALAI LAMA ON YOUTH LEADERSHIP: Panel on The Significance of Education in Advancing Universal Human Values. "His Holiness The Dalai Lama - Bren Events - Morning - Day 2.” UCI Media Services. July 13th, 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sM2jOhSeTBU
