Dharamshala: - The spiritual leader of Tibet His Holiness the Dalai Lama told a gathering of Indian doctors and nurses that "the medical treatment will be more successful, if there is a genuine sense of concern for others. But the key is to smile and be warm in your interactions."
"Cultivating a good heart and a positive motivation are very important. We have a Tibetan saying that this doctor is learned but his medicine is not very effective, whereas that doctor, while not very learned, makes more effective medicine because he is warmer-hearted," His Holiness said.
Speaking about compassion, the Tibetan spiritual leader and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate said that "the stern faced doctor treats his patients as little more than machines to be fixed, whereas the doctor who smiles understands the importance of putting the patient at ease. Doctors and nurses are truly admirable in their efforts to help others. I readily speak about compassion, but you people put it into effect. Wonderful."
His Holiness answered several questions from the audience after to the Medical Staff at Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, New Delhi January 20, 2015. Asked if competition between doctors is good or not, His Holiness replied that it depends on the motivation.
"If the motivation is to succeed in order to help others more effectively, it's good. But if the intention is to reach the top for your own selfish interests, it's not of much help," he said.
"We are all the same, physically mentally and emotionally," he told his audience. "We all want happiness just like other animals. And we all have a right to live a happy life," he added.
"However, what differentiates us from animals is our intelligence. Our intelligence and our more powerful brains give us the potential to make others happy besides ourselves. And yet, when we use our intelligence in negative or destructive ways, we create problems such as the organized or mechanized violence that is war. This is why we need to use our intelligence more positively and see ourselves as just as one among seven billion other human beings," Hiss Holiness added.
Describing himself as a great admirer of the thought of ancient India. The Tibetan spiritual leader said that "Ahimsa or non-violence gave rise to widespread tolerance and a strong sense of secularism, which in India means cultivating respect for the convictions of all those of religions faith as well as those who have none."
"In the West, the word secularism is considered by some to be similar to atheism, having no respect for any religion. Ancient Indian philosophy and psychology were deep and profound. If we compare ancient Indian psychology with Western psychology today, Western psychology is just at the beginning," he said.
Reiterating that India is also a country where the world's major religions have long lived together side by side, His Holiness said: "Apart from some occasional unfortunate incidents, by and large there has been significant harmony among religious traditions here."
This connects with my life's second commitment: the promotion of inter-religious harmony. Since all religious traditions talk about love, compassion and forgiveness, they should all be able to live together in respect and harmony. Such an understanding will be of great help to humanity.
To a question about whether we should acknowledge one truth, one faith, or many, the spiritual leader said that that the notion of one religion and one truth may be useful at the level of the individual, but in terms of the wider community we have to acknowledge the existence of several faiths and several truths.
His Holiness also explained that the nature of mind is pure and that the defilements, the disturbing emotions that cloud it are not of the nature of the mind. He said we need to train our minds to achieve happiness, inner peace and good health.