Health & Fitness
Seeking Change through Constructive Emotions
Constructive emotions, global awareness, and responsibility are presented to the audience at SDSU during the Dalai Lama's April visit.
By Kristin Silvia
On April 19, 2012, the Dalai Lama made a visit to San Diego State University to deliver a speech on “Compassion Without Borders” to a sold-out crowd. His address to the university addressed the ethical responsibility we have to each other, saying “Sense of brotherhood. That particularly brings, develop sense of responsibility.” That is to say, “Mentally, emotionally, physically, we are the same” and as such have an obligation to help one another—our “human brothers and sisters.”
Although emotions such as anger, jealousy, and fear have always and will always be part of the human condition, these “destructive” emotions are counterbalanced by “constructive” emotions of compassion and love. These are nurtured from childhood, and the Dalai Lama stresses the importance of a mother’s affection during the early years. By the time the child is fully grown and no longer needs the mother to protect him and nurture him or her, they will have not only the physical means but the emotional means to go into the world and help people through a sense of global awareness and responsibility. The new generation has the chance and, with luck, the tools to create a new and happier world.
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Those constructive emotions, the Dalai Lama believes, may not do much, but we are constantly seeking and obtaining new knowledge. “These changes [may] not happen overnight change, but gradual change.”
The Dalai Lama left the audience at SDSU with these final words: “So, finally, please, in order to you yourself achieve happy life, happy family, and making some contribution, better world, you should take care your warm heartedness and your intelligence, and your life should lead honest life. That's the potential. That's the foundation. Thank you.
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The transcript of the Dalai Lama’s visit to SDSU this past April is available here.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama will speak on Oct. 18 and 19 at Western Connecticut State University, and the public is invited to a free showing (video simulcast) in the Ives Concert Hall, 181 White St. To help promote this opportunity, WCSU students in the Writing, Linguistics and Creative Process Department's Advertising, Copywriting and Promotions class created a Twitter page. and they are writing this blog daily.
