-Lys Anzia - WNN - Women News Network
“I’m particularly moved by his belief that women are the caretakers and educators of our future citizens and society,” said Maria Shriver after a July 2006 personal meeting with His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala , India . Shriver had gone to ask personally if the Dalai Lama would consider speaking in Long Beach , California at the Governor and First Lady’s Conference on Women while H.H. was traveling inside the U.S. in September 2006. After the meeting His Holiness agreed.
The importance of speaking to women and to women’s issues today was foremost.
“I have always believed that women have a unique role in society,” said His Holiness in a press release before the 2006 Conference on Women. At the conference, before thirteen thousand participants, this winner of the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize, shared His views freely on women’s positive contributions to society. “Women have a special capacity to lead us to a more peaceful world with compassion, affection and kindness. And there is no more important time for that than this moment.”
Named Gelong Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama wrote in 1963, “Friendliness means that one develops amity toward all beings and this counteracts feelings of hatred.”
Adding an important note that sharply applies to our understanding of compassion today, Tenzin Gyatso continued, “Compassion is developed when seeing the sufferings of others so that one wishes to share their troubles and to help them, this being opposed to the attitude of callous indifference.”
Sharing the ideas of “spontaneous concern to help others” the Dalai Lama has a broad history of encouraging international non-violence through compassion and empathy.
In August of 1995, at the International Conference of Buddhist Women held in Ladakh, His Holiness said to all the women participants, “You need tremendous will-power and determination right from the start, accepting that there will be many obstacles, and resolving that despite them all you will continue until you have attained your goal.”
“It is the nature of human beings to yearn for freedom, equality and dignity. If we accept that others have a right to peace and happiness equal to our own, do we not have a responsibility to help those in need? All human beings, whatever their cultural or historical background, suffer when they are intimidated, imprisoned, tortured or discriminated against. The question of human rights is so fundamentally important that there should be no difference of views on this.”
The ideas are not new. In 1989 in an acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize the Dalai Lama said, “Weneed to cultivate a universal responsibility for one another and the planet we share.”
It’s clear that women around the globe today share a vast range of experience together on an ever shrinking planet.
“Our rich diversity of cultures and tradition should help to strengthen fundamental human rights in all communities. Mere tradition can never justify violations of human rights. Thus, discrimination against persons of a different race, against women, and against weaker sections of society may be traditional in some places, but because they are inconsistent with universally recognized human rights, these forms of behavior should change. The universal principle of the equality of all human beings must take precedence,” said His Holiness in Ladakh in 1995.
Connecting women, motherhood and the world in a January 2006 interview with the Dalai Lama, Amitabh Pal, managing editor for The Progressive, asked the basic question, “Apart from Buddhism, what are your sources for inspiration?”
“Human values,” answered Tenzin. “When I look at birds and animals, their survival is without rules, without conditions, without organization. But mothers take good care of their offspring. That’s nature. In human beings also, parents—particularly mothers—and children have a special bond. Mother’s milk is a sign of this affection. We are created that way. The child’s survival is entirely dependent on someone else’s affection. So, basically, each individual’s survival or future depends on society.”
It is important to remember without the care of women toward society what we know as the best of society could crumble.
“Remembering the kind influence of my own mother, I pray that women working for inner peace and, through that, peace in the world, may be blessed with success,” added His Holiness.
____________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
Sources for this article include Associated Press, Phayul.com, SpiritSound Collection, The Theosophical Publishing House, Sakyadita, Magazine of the International Assoc. of Buddhist Women, The Progressive, Long Beach Downtown Gazette, Little Brown and Company Publishing, SFGate, Global Fund for Women, Boise State University, Catherine Cunningham - Nature’s Reflections, Lobsang Wangyal.com and The 2006 California Governor & First Lady’s Conference on Women
_____________________________________________________
© WNN - Women News Network 2007
Comments are closed.