Encourage people to cultivate peace of mind for stable democratic societies: Dalai Lama

Dharamshala (Himachal Pradesh) [India], November 25 : Tibet's spiritual leader, Dalai Lama, in a virtual meeting with Prof Lia Diskin of Palas Athena, Brazil had a conversation on "Educating the Heart for the New Millennium", where he encouraged people to cultivate peace of mind for stable democratic societies.
"People have a much broader experience of democracy and social responsibility, which reflect concern for the wider community. If we want to see more stable democratic societies, we have to encourage more people to cultivate peace of mind", said Lama emphasizing democracy.
He laid stress on intelligence, which differentiates humans from animals and said that even though elephants have bigger brains but we human beings are more intelligent, "intelligence is a distinctly human quality", he said.
"However, if this intelligence is combined with hatred, anger and fear, it can be very destructive. Therefore, we must be careful to combine it with warm-heartedness instead. Cultivating warm-heartedness is not just a religious matter, even scientists today appreciate the contribution it makes to finding inner peace. Since our lives depend on the community in which we live, we need to help each other. And to do that, intelligence alone is not enough, we need warm-heartedness too," added Dalai Lama.
Talking about the climate crisis and the need to balance the equilibrium in order to control damage to the environment, he said, "I often observe that over the last few thousand years anger and self-centredness have given rise to a great deal of trouble on this planet."
"World belongs to everyone who lives in it. Protecting the environment is about protecting our own future because this world is our only home. Scientists are clear that global warming is increasing rapidly and along with it, we are seeing more extreme climatic events--floods, drought and fires. He repeated that protecting the environment is a matter of taking care of our own home," added Lama.
He emphasized the importance of education. "Education should include instruction about the role warm-heartedness as it plays in an individual's good health, as well as in peace within families, communities and the world at large."
He reiterated how important it is to educate people about protecting the environment. He observed that the great rivers that rise on the Tibetan plateau supply water to people across Asia. They are crucial to the very lives of millions.
He also talked about demilitarization, he said, "When I think of the amount of money that is spent on weapons, armies and 'defence', I think it's out of date and a mistake. We need to make this a more peaceful century, an era of demilitarization."