Friday, July 10, 2009

Value crisis

In a recent interview with HH the Dalai lama by a Germany journalist, the Dalai Lama was asked about the economic crisis to which he responded that the "financial crisis isn't purely a crisis of market economy, bur rather a crisis of value". From this interview, the Dalai Lama shared his insights on world economic woe, and I am impressed tremendously as always by His Holiness the Dalai lama's wisdom. The Tibetan spiritual leader may not have a economic background, but his indepth knowledge on Tibetan Buddhist philosophy, enabled him to grasp the human mentality so comprehensively and so sophisticatedly that he is well suited to comment on all issues. The Dalai Lama is a thinker, philosopher, scholar and scientist and economist. The world thinkers, scholars and journalists, weigh each and every words of HH, because in my view, they are so relevant and rational in this post modern interconnected world.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama's solution for the economic crisis is to inculcate value education starting from school, and so the change should begin with each individuals. Greed is the root cause as spelled out by HH . His Holiness also said the people who are most affected by this world financial crisis are the one who only think about money-even dream about it -are affected the most by it. So what lessons if any can learn from this economic crisis. Yes, the lessons we learn are many "the value of money is limited and insecurity is huge. Inner value, such as friendship, trust, honesty and compassion are much more reliable than money-they always brings strength and happiness". Despite of huge economic leap for the Chinese leadership, the Dalai Lama warns potential danger to it "communist elites only think about power and money, and this can be very destructive". So the bottom line is that money is not everything for a happy life not even for a happy society or presperous nation. As for happiness for an individual there is a formula :Happiness=compassion+emptiness. For a detail understanding of emptiness and compassion, "The Wisdom of Forgiveness" by HH the Dalai and Victor Chan is a must read. This is one of those rare books I have read by HH the Dalai Lama and it changed me and so will you on your outlook on life and its purpose.