His Holiness, the Dalai Lama's Message
Many people seem to be excited about the new millennium,
We have had many experiences during this century -
If we are are going to make the right kinds of efforts
1. While engaging in material progress and taking care
2. Along with education, which generally deals only
3. This past century in some ways has been a century
4. We need to address the issue of the gap between the
5. For the sake of our future generations, we need
6. Lastly, one of the greatest challenges today is the
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Transcript of Dalai Lama's Message
01/05/2000 09:38 am EST
for the New Millennium:
but the new millennium in itself will be nothing special.
As we enter into the new millennium things will be the same;
there will be nothing unusual, however,if we really want
the next millennium to be happier, more peaceful and more
harmonious for humanity we will have to make the effort to
make it so. This is in our hand, but is especially in the
hands of the younger generation.
constructive as well as extremely destructive ones.
We must learn from these experiences we need to approach
the next millennium more holistically, with more openness
and far-sightedness.
to make the future of the world better, I believe the
following matters are of great importance:
of physical well-being, we need to pay equal attention
to the developing peace of mind and thus taking care of
internal aspects of our beings.
with academic accomplishments, we need to develop more
altruism and sense of caring and responsibility for
others in the minds of the younger generation studying
in various educational institutions. This can be done
without necessarily involving religion. One could
therefore call this 'secular ethics', as it in fact
consists of basic human qualities such as kindness,
compassion, sincerity and honesty.
of war and bloodshed. It has seen a year by year increase
in defense spending by most countries in the world. If we
are to change this trend we must seriously consider the
concept of non-violence, which is a physical expression
of compassion. In order to make non-violence a reality
we must first work on internal disarmament and then
proceed to work on external disarmament.
By internal disarmament I mean ridding ourselves of
all the negative emotions that result in violence.
External disarmament will also have to be done
gradually, step by step. We must first work on the
total abolishment of nuclear weapons and gradually
work up to total demilitarization throughout the
world. In the process of doing this we also need to
work towards stopping the arms trade, which is still
very widely practiced because it is so lucrative.
When we do all these things, we can then hope to see
in the next millennium a year by year decrease in the
military expenditure of the various nations and gradual
working towards demilitarization.
Human problems will always remain but the way to resolve
them should be through dialogue and discussion. The next
century should be a century of dialogue and discussion
rather than one of war and bloodshed.
rich and the poor,both globally and nationally. This
inequality, with some sections of the human community
having abundance and others on the same planet going
hungry or even dying of starvation, is not only morally
wrong, but practically also a source of problems.
Equally important is the issue of freedom. As long as
there is no freedom in many parts of the world there
can be no real peace and in a sense no real freedom
for the rest of the world.
to take care of our earth and of our environment.
Environmental damage is often gradual and not easily
apparent and by the time we become aware of it, it is
generally too late. Since most of the major rivers
flowing into many parts of south-east Asia originate
from the Tibetan plateau, it will not be out of place
to mention here the crucial importance of taking care
of the environment in that area.
population explosion. Unless we are able to tackle this
issue effectively we will be confronted with the problem
of the natural resources being inadequate for all the
human beings on this earth. We need to seriously look
into these matters that concern us all if we are to
look forward to the future with some hope.
January 1, 2000 (His Holiness, the Dalai Lama)
A Letter To President Bush
