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(THE DALAI LAMA’S MORAL COMPASS, 5/7/25, SUNDAY SPEAKING TREE BY RAJIV MEHROTRA)
What do we turn to when the world loses its moral bearings? Violence seems relentless. In Gaza, babies in powerless incubators gasp for breath. In Ukraine and Russia, parents bury sons they never imagined losing. In Kashmir, tourists were gunned down near Pahalgam. Swift actions followed –aIrstrikes, declarations of zero tolerance.
We watch from afar. Images flood our screens but meaning dissolves in the noise. Even when ceasefires arrive, the discourse circles around who won the battle, not what the war has cost. And a deeper question is left hanging: Is this all we know how to do?
I often recall a quiet moment in 1983 at the Dalai Lama’s residence in Dharamshala. On simple prayer mats was written. “Pray for the Chinese.” This is from a community that had endured invasion, exile, and the attempted erasure of its culture. Yet their daily practice included compassion for those responsible.
The Dalai Lama has always distinguished between acts of governments and the people. Monks were instructed not to forget the harm, but to remember without hatred. It was an act of moral resistance, not rooted in rage.
Over four decades, I’ve seen him remain consistent. He opposes terrorism without qualification, recognises that force may sometimes be necessary to prevent greater harm, yet insists that intention is as important as action. This is not a soft sentiment.
It is a deliberate stance, grounded in the reality of interdependence, where suffering in one place ripples across continents.
In his words, “World peace must grow from inner peace.” This is not an escape into personal sanctuaries. It is a redirection. Anger and fear are left unexamined, and diplomacy is shattered, causing fragile accords fracture. Even the most carefully brokered treaties cannot hold if suspicion and resentment remain.
At the heart of his teachings is a clear moral logic: hatred and ignorance are more corrosive than any political adversary. He appeals to values not confined to religion but rooted in human experience — the capacity to care, refrain from retaliation, and resist cruelty even when wronged.
Such language can sound idealistic in an age driven by outrage and certainty. But its durability lies in its refusal to mirror the forces it opposes. It offers not a quick fix, but a framework for healing –one that prizes clarity over conquest, and resilience over retribution.
Today, moral leadership is in short supply. The Dalai Lama offers something subtler: a moment of pause, an insistence on reflection. He asks us not just to act, but to examine how we act– what we cultivate in ourselves, even as we respond to the world.
Violence has become increasingly impersonal –executed through drones, sanctions, and screens. Victims become statistics. But pain is never abstract to those who experience it. The greater the distance, the easier it is to justify harm or look away.
From Israel to Iran, Myanmar to Sudan, the pattern repeats: brute power strikes, people bleed. Yet we spend over $2.4 trillion a year on arms, while a fraction of that could educate every child and bring clean water to every village. As the Dalai Lama has said, “We are over-armed and under-educated.”
What is left to do for those of us who watch, scroll, and grieve? Perhaps this: resist the temptation to harden. Let suffering deepen, not blunt, our humanity. A shift in tone. A pause in the momentum of anger. Even a moment of grace is a form of resistance in the face of brutality.
“Do not let the suffering you see make you bitter,” he says. “Let it make you more human.” That may be the most enduring resistance of all.
Critics ask whether non-violence has restored Tibet or if compassion ends war. They measure success by territory regained. But they miss the more resounding triumph. Tibet’s moral voice has not been extinguished. The Dalai Lama remains a global conscience –not because he holds power, but because he never wielded it with rancour.
Tibet may not be free. But it has not surrendered its dignity. At 90, the Dalai Lama remains a compass in an age adrift –pointing quietly, persistently, towards compassion, clarity, and courage.
And beneath the clamour, a single teaching endures:
Let the pain you see make you more human.
(RAJIV MEHROTRA IS MANAGING TRUSTEE, FOUNDATION FOR UNIVERSAL RESPONSIBILITY OF HIS HOLINESS THE DALAI LAMA. VIEWS ARE PERSONAL)
Posted by Kamlesh Tripathi
Author, Poet, & Columnist
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