Dalai Lama
The Compassionate Life
Some of my friends have told me that while love and compassion are
marvelous and good, they are not really very relevant. Our world, they
say, is not a place where such virtues have much influence or power.
They claim that anger and hatred are so much a part of human nature
that humanity will always be dominated by them. I do not agree.
We humans have existed in our present form for about a hundred
thousand years. I believe that if during this time the human mind had
been primarily controlled by anger and hatred, our population would
have decreased. But today, despite all our wars, we find that the
human population is greater than ever. This clearly indicates to me
that while anger and aggression are surely present, love and
compassion predominate in the world. This is why what we call "news"
is composed of mostly unpleasant or tragic events; compassionate
activities are so much a part of daily life that they are taken for
granted and therefore are largely ignored.
...We are, after all, social animals. Without human friendship,
without the human smile, our lives become miserable. The loneliness
becomes unbearable. Such human interdependence is a natural law--that
is to say, according to natural law, we depend on others to live. If,
under certain circumstances, because something is wrong inside us,
our attitude toward our fellow human beings on whom we depend becomes
hostile, how can we hope to attain peace of mind or a happy life?
According to basic human nature or natural law,
interdependence--giving and receiving affection--is the key to happiness.
--from The Compassionate Life by Tenzin Gyatso, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama
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