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TEACHINGS | EASTERN HORIZON 7

Leading a

Meaningful Life

By His Holiness The 14th Dalai Lama

His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, was born on 6 July
1935, and is the spiritual leader of Tibet. He is also a world famous
Buddhist scholar and teacher, and author of numerous books on
Buddhism. He was awarded the Noble Peace Prize in 1989 for his
non-violent approach in solving the problem in Tibet with China.

All sentient beings but, in particular, and pleasures and remove some of make countless divisions and,
human beings, have the power to our physical difficulties. But what based on these, we develop many
distinguish between happiness and we derive from material facilities is types of discursive thoughts and
suffering, good and bad, what is limited to the experience of the body. misconceptions. Because of those,
harmful and what is beneficial. we sometimes have too many hopes
Because of that ability to recognize Unlike other species of animals, and sometimes too much doubt.
and differentiate between these human beings have a tremendous
different types of feelings, we are all capacity to think, to calculate, to Therefore, purely based on
similar in wanting happiness and judge and to make long-term plans. human intelligence and conception,
not wanting suffering. Therefore, the pains and pleasures we experience many types
that we experience as human beings of unhappiness. This is very
Although here I cannot go into the are also much stronger and much clearly outlined in the famous text
complexity of tracing the origin of more powerful. Because of that, called Four Hundred Verse Treatise by
how these different types of feelings it is possible that human beings Aryadeva, where it says (II.8): “To
develop, but what is obvious and experience additional sufferings those in privileged positions comes
clear to all of us is that we do have that are very much related to the mental suffering, while to common
this appreciation of happiness and capacity of human thinking. folks physical suffering arises.”
disliking toward the experiences of This means, those people who have
pain and sufferings. Therefore, it is For example, in the case of human more power, more wealth, may
extremely important to lead a life beings, unlike animals, we are not have much physical suffering,
that brings harmony and peace and not satisfied with achieving some but they experience much more
that doesn’t bring disturbance and kind of temporary happiness and mental suffering. Now in the case
turmoil. being able to remove some kind of ordinary people, they have more
of temporary sufferings. That’s physical suffering because of not
When it comes to the question of because, we human beings being able to obtain enough clothing,
achieving peace and happiness, have the capacity to make long- enough food and so forth. Thus it is
it is wrong to think that all our term planning and calculations, and clear that human beings experience
peace and happiness come just therefore we also make divisions much additional suffering because of
from external material prosperity. between ourselves and others. the way we think.
Through relying on material Based on these divisions, we talk
facilities, it is possible that we can about different nations, different As I said earlier, physical suffering
enhance our physical happiness races and different religions. We can be minimized by gaining access