Creating Peace

HH Dalai Lama speaking to a group of students in India:

http://dalailama.com/webcasts/post/120-what-life-is-all-about



The talk is entitled 'What is the meaning of life' to which he offers up the answer 'I don't know.' He then goes on to offer up a formula for life: Knowledge plus tradition, with open mind, and perhaps a bit of skepticism (analytical meditation) - not so much a religion inasmuch as, simply, a proper way to live.

I'm all about positivity man. How can one make a habit of creating peace amid the negativity of our generation? Do you think that the next generation can logically create peace? Can humanity take a problem and seek solutions (instead of scapegoating)?

Any insights/thoughts about this talk?

I can't wait to watch it when I have a chance.

*sigh* It looks good.. unfortunately I'm just not able to get into it it seems.

I love HH but he's hard for me to verbally understand, and my speakers on the laptop are quiet. Straining to hear. I also seem to have guests who are making it a game to be as annoying and loud as possible (or so it seems). I'm catching about one word per sentence... pause...restart...listen to 5 more minutes... have restarted about 6 or 7 times and I've still missed everything.

I guess your summary sums it up though. Now I'm irritated. I guess since I never get more than 1 to 2 minutes of alone time (ever) in a day, it's why I have to use books.

Oh it's not fun when things are not clear.... and he's a bit of a low talker imho.

But it does give one the opportunity for putting my paraphrase of his talk into words!


Maybe next time I'll put up an Adyashanti or Pema Chodron link... though they are low talkers too. (What is it with Buddhism and quiet talking anyways?)

As part of keeping emotion (passions) under check and subdued, it's required to teach the dharma in a low and passionless voice. Otherwise you'd end up with monks a la evangelists.

There was one I read about once (I can't remember who or where, I never heard him talk) who did teach with passion. It was highly abnormal.

Pema Chodron is easy for me to listen to, as since she's a native english speaker I don't have to strain to understand and her youtube videos are loud and clear enough. I know that the setting/echo/mike problem in this talk from HH wasn't his fault, it's not like he was giving a seminar that was meant to be recorded perfectly.

Sidenote: I think paraphrasing and re-writing is how we digest and put information into our memory. I always liked the school exercises where we had to 're-teach' what we'd just learned.