Ethics
for the New Millennium
By Dalai Lama
Pub Date: 06/99
Publisher: Riverhead Books
Binding: Hard Cover, 320pp.
Status: Available
ISBN: 1573220256
Our Price $24.95
Synopsis
Only during a
time when we have so little faith in one another, so little confidence
in the willingness of others to do what is right, can a strong voice
emerge to dispel disillusionment and show us hope. It takes a person of
great courage, such as the Dalai Lama, to face these times and say there
is hope.
There is an argument to be made for basic human goodness. The number
of people who spend their lives being violent or dishonest is tiny
compared with the number of people-the vast majority we don't hear
about-who would wish others only well. According to the Dalai Lama, our
survival has depended and will depend on our basic goodness. "Much
more effective and important than legislation is our regard for one
another's feelings at a simple human level…Here, I refer to the
capacity we all have to empathize with one another…to arrive at the
inability to bear the sight of another's suffering." The Dalai Lama
presents an ethical system that not only is based on common sense and
reason, as opposed to religious dogma or punitive legislation, but has
as its goal ultimate happiness for every individual.
The Dalai lama demonstrates that human beings are better than we
think we are, and that a society and a life that cultivate love and
compassion are completely within out reach. If enough people operate
from the understanding of their "original purity," a global
revolution of peace will ensue.
Publisher
The Dalai Lama
bases his exquisitely argued cry for a new look at society on the
radical notion that human beings are "originally pure" and
presents a persuasive examination of human's fundamental natures.
Critics
Is ethics
interesting or boring? When popular books on ethics and morality first
started coming out a few years ago, I avoided them because the authors
were generally political neoconservatives who seemed to feel they had
the final word on the subject. I don't want to be preached at.
Unfortunately, discussions of ethics and preaching seem to go together
in the Western mind, because generally we associate ethical discussions
with laying down the law, and such discussions quickly deteriorate in
the imagination into one-sided lectures in which some authority figure
(parent, teacher, boss, religious leader) wags a finger at us and tells
us what to do.
On the other hand, it's pretty clear from events in the past year —
especially a certain President's wagging his finger at us, as well as a
certain prosecutor and congresspeople wagging fingers back at him —
that ordinary ethical decisions can have profound consequences in our
lives. It's not just that the President made all of us unhappy, but it's
clear that he made himself profoundly unhappy, which made the whole
situation even more painful. Moreover, in the United States at least, we
seem deeply confused and unsatisfied with how to talk in public about
ethical questions. We're uncomfortable with the sloppiness of
situational ethics, with "anything goes"; we suspect that
someone posing as a higher authority and telling us how to behave might
well be a hypocrite. Read with this dilemma in mind, the Dalai Lama's
discussion in Ethics for the New Millennium is both welcome and
healing.
One thing that's immediately surprising and brilliant here is that
the Dalai Lama disconnects his discussion of ethics from religion.
That's not what you'd expect from the leader of six million Tibetan
Buddhists. But his point is partly pragmatic — many readers may
profess no formal religion but want to lead ethical lives, and as the
Dalai Lama also notes, there are many who profess religion but are not
particularly ethical. Instead, the Dalai Lama begins with a basic
premise, from which he draws many important conclusions. The premise is,
simply, that all human beings desire to be happy.
Why is this important? Because when we understand that everyone is
trying to be happy, we see that no matter what we might think of another
person's behavior, how screwed up, completely annoying, and even
dangerous it may be — that person is attempting in some manner to
fulfill a universal desire. This gets us away from the always dangerous
and hypocritical satisfaction of judging those we disapprove of as
"bad" and forces us instead to consider how much we all have
in common.
Moreover, this basic premise shows a way out of negative behavior by
making a "selfish" argument. While most arguments about ethics
tend to focus on the negative impact on others, it's helpful to me to
understand that negative behavior will inevitably be destructive to my
own goal of being happy. This, of course, is a difficult point, because
it's not all that obvious. In fact, it's led in the Western religious
circles to the discussion we call theodicy — justifying the ways of
God to man, as Milton put it: trying to explain how the wicked prosper
and the good suffer, bad things happen to good people, and good things
happen to bad. In some traditions, the only solution is to imagine that
there's an afterlife in which the good are rewarded and the evil are
punished. Other traditions simply declare that such questions are
ultimately unanswerable or mysterious.
The Dalai Lama's answer is quite different. He provides a
psychological ethics by focusing on the inner life, the inner mental
development of each person. He explains that our negative behaviors
always have a psychological effect upon us. "Consider," he
writes, "a child going out to play who gets into a fight with
another child. Immediately after, the victorious child may experienced a
sense of satisfaction. But on returning home, that emotion will subside
and a more subtle state of mind will manifest. At that point, a sense of
unease sets in. We could almost describe this sort of feeling as a sense
of alienation from self: the individual doesn't feel quite 'right.' In
the case of a child who goes out to play with a friend and shares an
enjoyable afternoon with that playmate, afterwards not only will there
be an immediate sense of satisfaction but when the mind has settled down
and the excitement worn off, there will be a sense of calm and
comfort."
As we grow from childhood, we may lose this childlike sensitivity and
become more cynical and less refined in our feelings. That loss of
sensitivity is in itself the consequence that will lead us to further
unhappiness. While the Dalai Lama agrees that looking out for oneself is
a normal trait, "nothing to be angry at ourselves for having,"
he also points out that if we continually engage in negative behaviors
— "meanness, aggressiveness, deceit"- we will be cultivating
a state of mind that is a punishment in itself.
He does not mean anything simplistic, "that in every instance
when I hit someone, I will be hit myself. The proposition I am making is
much more general than this. Rather I mean to suggest that the impact of
our actions — both positive and negative — registers deep within
us." And such afflictive states of mind — afflictive emotions
like anger, greed, lust, selfishness — destroy our capacity to be in a
kind relationship with others and inevitably make us lonelier, more
isolated, more unhappy. There is also an antidote, which the Dalai Lama
describes in some detail, that involves the cultivation of more
wholesome states of mind.
Befitting his status as a world leader, the Dalai Lama does not lose
sight of "the universal dimension of our individual actions,"
and his discussion of ethics embraces such global issues as the
environment, peace and disarmament, and education. But by rooting that
discussion in the immediate and understandable struggle for individual
happiness, this book grabs us where we live. Along the way, His Holiness
offers some hints and glimpses of his personal life — the Dalai Lama
as a guest in someone's house happens to see their medicine cabinet open
and draws certain conclusions — and tells some funny stories — a
moment of embarrassment in the middle of a religious ceremony, and an
encounter between a certain Tibetan and a car hood — that add warmth
and color to the discussion. But the major reward in reading this book
is to spend hours in communion with an extraordinarily happy mind —
one that has trained itself over many decades in the cultivation of
precisely the quality of compassion that he argues is the foundation of
all ethical behavior.
—Rodger Kamenetz
School
Library Journal
YA-The Dalai Lama
examines the world, its ills, and its coming changes in a disarmingly
conversational style that engages readers. With a perspective that
should appeal to teens weary of negativity, he offers an encouraging
view of the future, arguing convincingly that we humans are better than
we tend to believe. Avoiding technical terms and dogma, he presents
Buddhist values and ethics, chiefly the dynamic of compassion and a
recognition of the "complex interlinking of relationships," in
such a way that individuals from a variety of cultural or religious
backgrounds can understand their application to modern dilemmas and
personal choices. Chapters focus on concepts such as restraint,
discernment, non-harming, and responsibility as they apply to
far-ranging subjects including the environment, disarmament, religion,
science, and education. In a world in which many historical boundaries
are becoming irrelevant, he focuses upon the essential qualities of
humanity that we all share and from which new forms of social
organization can evolve. An important book for thoughtful teens to muse
over now, and return to in the future.-Christine C. Menefee, Fairfax
County Public Library, VA Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|
Library
Journal
The Dalai Lama,
spiritual leader of the Tibetans, is highly respected for his gentleness
and his constant quest for a reconciliation with the Chinese, who have
oppressed Tibet for more than 40 years. This book proposes a morality of
acceptance and compassion. The Dalai Lama encourages without being
preachy and admonishes without being accusatory. He intends his book for
the widest possible audience and writes in a simple, straightforward
style that some sophisticated readers may find off-putting. Lacking
footnotes or bibliography, this is not useful as a text for scholars or
students, and it adds nothing new to ethical theory. The Dalai Lama
explicitly avoids ethical principles derived from any religious
doctrine; people often use religion, he says, to justify harming others.
Instead, he counsels us to examine our motives and to try always to act
with compassion. Though his emphasis on individual intention may
alienate believers in Judeo-Christian and Muslim scripture, many others
will find him persuasive. Recommended for public libraries.--James F.
DeRoche, Alexandria, VA Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.
Publisher's
Weekly
"This is not a
religious book," asserts the Dalai Lama about a volume that's his
most outspoken to date on moral and social issues. "My aim has been
to appeal for an approach to ethics based on universal rather than
religious principles." The Dalai Lama adopts this approach because,
he notes, the majority of humanity ignores religion, the traditional
vehicle for ethics, yet observation shows him that happiness, which he
discerns as the prime human goal, depends upon "positive ethical
conduct." The entire book, written in simple, direct prose,
reflects this sort of step-by-step reasoning, taking on color and drama
with numerous anecdotes drawn from the Tibetan leader's personal
experience. Methodically, the Dalai Lama explores the foundation of
ethics, how ethics affects the individual and the role of ethics in
society. He resorts often to Buddhist principles (as in employing the
idea of dependent origination--that nothing arises or exists of
itself--to demonstrate the interrelatedness of all life), but also to
native Tibetan ideas and, occasionally, to secular thought or that of
other religions. The book represents no radical departure from his
previous work, but it does present a number of forceful views on issues
ranging from cloning to vivisection to excess wealth ("the life of
luxury... is unworthy"), as well as personal flavor not seen in his
books since his autobiography, Freedom in Exile. The Dalai Lama refers,
for instance, to his unwillingness to sell his watch collection for
money to feed the poor as an example of ethical limitation. With its
disarmingly frank, kindly manner and authoritative air, the book is what
one would expect from a Nobel Peace Prize winner, and could appeal as
widely as the Dalai Lama's current bestseller, The Art of Happiness.
(Aug.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.
Ethics
for the New Millennium