His Holiness the Dalai Lama offered advice to young people during a meeting with friends on Monday. A number of audience members were present at his residence in Dharamsala, northern India, while others tuned in via live-stream for the event.

In a video segment from the talk posted to YouTube, His Holiness is seen calling up a young boy from the audience. The Dalai Lama tells him: “Come. I want. I want to practice Maoui . . . Maori’s tradition of New Zealand—touch the nose.” He then touched noses with the child and laughed as the boy smiled. The Dalai Lama then again embraced the boy and gave him the more traditional forehead-to-forehead greeting.

Then, with the boy at his side, the Dalai Lama told him and the audience:

My generation facing a lot of problems. Like your generation, [the] future, hopefully [will be] more peaceful, more equal. So you each one also have the responsibility to create genuine peace on the concept of [the] oneness of seven billion human beings.

Now, today, the global warming [is] one serious matter. So such as a serious situation, [there is] now no use to fight each other. Now [the] time [has] come, we have to think “world, world,” not “my nation, my continent,” but rather the whole of humanity. When you see people facing some difficult situation . . . when someone you see is lonely . . . passing through some difficulties, then they see one human being. No question [of] what nation, what religion, what race, but simply one human being there and feel very happy. Oh, oh, whoa, whoa, like that [laughs]. When we do not have a serious problem, then we [place] too much emphasis [on] what religion, what race, what country, and within the same community rich and poor.

(YouTube)

The Dalai Lama concluded: “So now, global warming seems to be telling us that we should act as one human being,” he said, pausing for emphasis. “Now [the] time [has] come to think about humanity.”

The appearance marked the Dalai Lama’s second live public event since he gave a teaching on the Jataka tales last month,* which was his first live public appearance since the COVID-19 pandemic began, when he shifted to a schedule of entirely online events.

On 7 April, the Dalai Lama attended and spoke to participants at the 25th Sho-tön Festival and Middle Way Approach Conference in the courtyard of the main Tibetan temple in Dharamsala. As part of the conference, eight opera troupes performed for the Dalai Lama and others gathered.

During that event, His Holiness said: “This is an opportunity for us to celebrate our traditional culture. In Lhasa, the Sho-tön festival was observed over four days. I used to really enjoy it. It gave me time off from my studies and recitations in front of my tutors. It was one of my favorite holidays because my family had a house at Norbulingka and my mother would attend the Sho-tön Festival and would come to see me. Those were happy days.” (His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet)

The events mark a hopeful return to normal for His Holiness, who has long been an advocate of the dual causes of Tibetan religion and culture and global peace. In 1989, His Holiness was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize “for advocating peaceful solutions based upon tolerance and mutual respect in order to preserve the historical and cultural heritage of his people.” (Nobel Prize)

* Dalai Lama Gives First In-Person Public Audience in Two Years with Teaching from the Jatakas (BDG)

See more

Advice to the Younger Generation (YouTube)
Meeting Participants in the 25th Sho-tön Opera Festival (His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet)
The Nobel Peace Prize 1989 (The Nobel Prize)

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