His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama:

An old Tibetan proverb says that no one knows exactly what will happen first: tomorrow or the next life. A couple of weeks ago Kyiv Mohyla Academy National University hosted the roundtable “The XIV Dalai Lama as a Thinker,” which was dedicated to one of our most distinguished contemporaries, His Holiness the XIX Dalai Lama. After Tibet was occupied by Chinese troops in 1950, the young Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of the Tibetan Buddhists, was forced to flee the country, together with a considerable part of the Tibetan population. He settled in India on the invitation of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

Today, the Dalai Lama is one of the best-known and most respected people in the world, a champion of peace, justice, spiritual values, and interreligious accord. He is the recipient of numerous international awards, including the Nobel Peace Prize. International polls indicate that the population of certain countries, including Germany, would be willing to elect the Dalai Lama Leader of the Planet.

The Dalai Lama has written more than 60 books. They have been translated into many languages and are read by ordinary people, politicians, and scientists. One of his most popular books is Ethics for the New Millennium, now available to Ukrainian readers. Strange as it may seem, reading this book, one gets the impression that a number of the Dalai Lama’s ideas and convictions are rooted in Ukraine. Thus, he writes that few events in our life are determined by so-called karma (a Sanskrit word meaning “action”). Karma denotes an active force in which future events are influenced by our past and present actions. However, to say that karma determines the course of our life independently of us would be absolutely wrong, the Dalai Lama says.

So who is creating karma? We are, of course, by the way we think, speak, desire things, act, or remain inactive. The correct understanding of causes and effects indicates that we are not helpless on the road of life. There is much that we can do to influence the extent of our future sufferings.

The Dalai Lama’s reflections on the karma of countries and nations (rather than individuals) are extremely topical. Key here is joint responsibility for what happens in a given society. Even in the most democratic countries one can hear utterly unrealistic promises made by politicians in their campaign speeches. These people did not fall from the sky. The Dalai Lama says that he has become convinced that if there are corrupt politicians in a country, it is safe to assume that this society is lacking in morality and that the inhabitants of this country are also corrupt (within the limits of their respective capacities). Yet if an entire nation is honest and upholds moral discipline, and protects the weak, then their elected leaders will respect these values. Therefore, responsibility always devolves not only on leaders of countries or those appointed or elected to some posts; it is a personal function of each one of us.

The Dalai Lama’s ideas on world religions, believers, and nonbelievers are extremely topical for Ukraine. His statements are proof that this spiritual leader sincerely respects other religions practiced around the world. It may be said without exaggeration that few religious figures match this Tibetan religious leader’s broad outlook and understanding of the problems of other religions, as well as his tolerant attitude.

The XIV Dalai Lama writes that it is possible to discuss ethics and morals without referring to religion. We have to accept ethics as an indispensable means of intercommunication between our and others’ desire to be happy.

Exchanging personal experiences helped the Dalai Lama realize the great value of each of the main religious traditions and made him respect them profoundly. For him Buddhism remains the most precious of these ways, but this does not mean that he regards it as the best religion for everyone; nor does he think that every person must be a believer.

Encountering various people all over the world helped him understand that other religions and cultures (not only Buddhism) are capable of providing people with many opportunities to live an eventful creative and spiritual life. Moreover, he arrived at the conclusion that it does not matter greatly whether a person follows a particular religion. What matters considerably more is for that individual to be a good person. He believes that empathy is one of the most important human traits.

There can be only one religion and one truth for an individual, but where human society is concerned, we must accept the concept that there are many truths and many religions, and therefore we must develop genuine awareness of religious pluralism.

Although most of the roughly six billion humans on earth profess one religious tradition or another, today the impact of religion on human lives is generally insignificant, especially in the developed countries. It is also correct to assume that we humans can live perfectly normal lives without religious convictions.

The Dalai Lama believes that if the world’s major religions — Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Christianity, etc. — are viewed from the broadest angle, they are aimed at helping people achieve enduring happiness. In his opinion, every religion can be instrumental here.

Religion, politics, economy, and many other things become dirty in the absence of simple human feelings. There should be no discrepancies between a politician’s outward manifestations and his inner world.

In his book the Dalai Lama also focuses attention on issues whose importance is not duly appreciated by society and governments in many countries, including Ukraine. When it comes to instilling respect in children for other traditions and religions, he stresses that school programs should eradicate all negative portrayals of “strangers” (which is precisely the case with Ukrainian textbooks). Children must be taught that the differences between their country and others, their own religion and other religions, are matters of minor importance.

Young scholars from the Hryhorii Skovoroda Institute of Philosophy, Krymsky Institute for Oriental Studies, and the Bohdan and Varvara Khanenko Art Museum (Yurii Zavhorodnii, Ivanna Otroshchenko, Anastasia Strelkova, Yevhen Osaulenko), as well as Serhii Filonenko, representative of the Buddhist Order in Donetsk took an active part in the roundtable dedicated to the Dalai Lama. Organized by Oleh and Yulia Tkachenko, this was Kyiv’s first public discussion of the phenomenon of His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama. The participants included scholars and a number of people who are simply interested in the Dalai Lama’s life, activities, and ideas.

However, the roundtable’s work did not fully correspond to the program that, apart from papers presented by the young scholars, included a highly successful exhibit at Ukraine House, called “The Power of Empathy” and a screening of the film Kundun, which has been shown in many countries. Much to the regret of the assembled guests, both the exhibit and the film were removed from the roundtable’s program because of the intervention of the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Ukraine. Chinese diplomats contacted the Kyiv Mohyla administration with a request to remove the exhibit and the film about the Dalai Lama from the program.

It is unfortunate that the officials of Kyiv Mohyla Academy National University rushed to comply with their request, probably even without discussing the matter with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine. All this is very humiliating for a country where freedom of speech has been regarded as perhaps the only positive achievement of the past several years.