Found this in one of my blogs today. Thought I would share it.
Dalai Lama Positive Emotion.
Originally written: Monday, April 17th, 2006
Updated June 16th 2020
By: Joshua Grenell
I was fortunate enough to be one of the select few to be in the physical presence of the Dalai Lama today. I would like to say that it is because of my great works with the mentally ill, but to be factual it is because my wife is extremely lucky with these sorts of things and she was kind enough to give me her ticket to the event. The Dalai Lama(DL),( can I do this without gaining bad karma?) was at my place of employment, and in his words “The real reason I am here is not for talk but for medical check-up!”
“No one comes to the hospital for a picnic.”
Overall I found the DL extremely humble and quite humorous. Several times he had the group of people laughing. He frequently commented on his poor English skills, which he attributed to his laziness as a student and that he has
“No courage to check dictionary.”
His “talk” focused on compassion and one of the points that I found very true was that if you are receiving treatment from a world-famous Doctor who is very bright but does not seem to you to be caring and compassionate then this doctors treatment will perhaps be worse than another doctor who is not as famous and not as bright but is very caring and compassionate.
Sincere medicine is effective medicine
I found this to be very true, especially in my area of work. He made several references and examples of this and also related this to the teaching field and that the good teachers always seem to care about the students and the students feel that the teacher really cares about them. Several references to parenting as well.
My favorite part of his talk was about Negative Emotion. In my line of work, this is very evident. Negative emotions, namely jealousy, hatred, and anger are the reason for all the non-natural disaster suffering in the world. When one’s mind is dominated by these negative emotions, then the mind can not convey compassion for the mind is focused entirely upon oneself. Positive emotion then is the key to the survival of all of us. He noted that some of the scientists in the room know or have read that negative emotion also has a negative effect on the physical body. He talked about a natural force in the world(universe) that must be present because all religions and philosophies are very similar in the area of compassion and affection. DL Discussed birds and small mammals and how affection is even needed for their survival. It also mentioned the importance of motherhood especially in the first 2 weeks of life.
Tolerance. He spoke of tolerance and when he did it seemed to get the most response from the audience. He defined tolerance as real Mercy. When you have the power to Fight and destroy something that you do not know or understand yet you do not. You abstain. In order to do this, society or person needs confidence and will power. Again negative emotion, fear, brings anger and hatred, which destroys people and societies.
He touched on secularism and it’s importance. The respect of all religions and beliefs and even the non-believers. He got the most laughs when he stated that the non-believer deals with bad events by just forgetting about them or “perhaps Alcohol?” The believers in God find comfort in the feeling that there must be a reason for what is happening. The Buddhist he noted sees bad events as possibly the beginning of something better or good. Karma. He noted how he was in a catholic monastery in France and how Buddhism and the catholic traditions for the monks where very similar yet were developed independently, he found this interesting. He commented that he knew it was a Buddhist tradition to meditate and pray and not get involved in the happening of the world but stated that perhaps we are praying too much and not doing enough.
Arrogance/Empty pride. “the only one who can perhaps be arrogant is God.” Everyone else who is arrogant is not in reality.
When asked what lessons can be learned from suffering. He again showed great wisdom by stating it depends on the person’s basic outlook. He stated that for the compassionate person it can improve that person, but for the already suffering it can increase anger. The compassionate person has a sense of concern for others, this sense of concern increases confidence because it draws out the focus on I, me, and puts it on others. When our own problems are not our focus then we gain inner strength. When your focus is on others well being your “world widens”
Your own problem is insignificant when you see others suffering.
When asked what about when the suffering has no hope of going away. In a classic Buddhist stance, he stated:
“If it can not be overcome then no benefit to you worrying about it.”
During his talk there where several times that I could not help but feel I was in the presence of Yoda… But that is my issue… Anyway thanks for checking this out. I am sure I will add and change and move stuff around a bit but I just wanted to get this down before I lost it all in the sea of my thoughts that seem to leave with the tide every night.
Take care all and try to find the positive emotion.