He looked into its history and discovered that it had come about during the time of the 5th Dalai Lama, who had referred to it as a malevolent spirit arisen from distorted prayers that harms the Dharma and sentient beings. Gradually, however, he came to realise that there was something wrong with it, particularly in the context of the Buddhist tradition. Turning back once more to the topic of Shugden he declared that he had once worshipped the spirit himself. And appealed to those who have children to show them affection and help them develop a broad perspective on the world.

He commended thinking of the 7 billion human beings as belonging to one great human family. His Holiness asked whether the world would be changed by governments or the United Nations and answered that change actually begins with the individual. Besides, peace of mind and warm-heartedness bring confidence.” Some years ago, a scientist at Emory University told me that continuous anger, fear and suspicion tends to eat into our immune system. “Peace of mind and physical well-being are closely related. And, because we are social animals, we not only need friends, but we are dependent on others for our very survival. These give rise to trust which leads to genuine friendship. It requires action based on truthfulness, honesty and transparency. This involves ethics and won’t be achieved simply through prayer.

Clearly more needs to be done to close the yawning gap between rich and poor.

Recently, in Eastern India when I was asked whether modern education gave sufficient guidance about ethics I pointed out that many smart, educated people are among the corrupt. “He wanted to put a stop to such hypocrisy. “Recently Pope Francis rebuked and suspended a German Bishop for living an extravagant lifestyle inconsistent with the teaching of the Catholic Church,” His Holiness reported. Today, their slogan was ‘Stop lying’, but the question is who really is lying. It was people like these who murdered a good monk and his students as they worked to translate a scripture into Chinese one night in 1997 near His Holiness’s residence in Dharamsala, he said. They were shouting and waving banners, their faces contorted in aggressive expressions. Photo/American Himalayan FoundationĪt this point His Holiness digressed to speak about the worshippers of the perfidious spirit Dolgyal or Shugden who had been demonstrating in the street outside the hall as he arrived. His Holiness the Dalai Lama speaking at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, California on February 22, 2014. This is true for all 7 billion human beings, who are emotionally, mentally and physically the same.” Maintaining a calm mind is the key to being happier and more peaceful. The more you adopt a broad and realistic view, the better able you are to deal with such problems. Faced with problems, how can we hope to lead a happy life? Many of our problems are related to our mental attitude. Young people on the other hand are fresh with new ideas and aspiring vision – that’s their beauty. In old age we have problems, but we also have a great deal of experience – that’s our beauty. We all want happiness and we each have the right to achieve it. I’m here as one human being among the 7 billion alive today. “Brothers and sisters I’m extremely happy to be with you. He concluded with a quotation from Ted Kennedy: “For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dream shall never die.” In his introductory remarks, Richard Blum mentioned that he and His Holiness are nearly the same age, that they first met in 1972 and that he was pleased to have him back in San Francisco.

Tibetan lama boutique san francisco