His Holiness the Dalai Lama

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Dharamshala, India — “We should reduce and eliminate weapons, and pay more attention to our inner peace, which is based on compassion, altruism. We must live side by side, and in this way we can truly build a world of peace and happiness,” His Holiness the Dalai Lama said as he shared his thoughts on Our Happiness, Our Health, Our Future with students and faculty of Monmouth University, USA.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama delivered a talk entitled Our Happiness, Our Health, Our Sustainable Future followed by a question and answer session with students and faculty of Monmouth University, USA online from his residence in Dharamshala, HP, India on September 22, 2021.

"We are deeply honored by your presence and inspired by your words to live happier, healthier, more compassionate, and harmonious lives for the benefit of future generations on Earth," said Dr. Patrick Leahy, President of Monmouth University, while welcoming His Holiness the Dalai Lama to share his views on our happiness, our health, our sustainable future.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama began his speech by thanking the initiative and saying, "We all want peace, including animals, we do not want to be disturbed, even small insects try to escape from danger, this is nature, a big difference is that we have this brain, we know how to overcome problems, avoid problems, because of our intelligence we can think widely, as far as time is concerned, we can think for the future”.

“Animals are short-sighted and humans are long-sighted, however, in the past, we humans became the most troublemakers, we humans created weapons, sometimes, we call these weapons for peace, in fact, the scope of responsibility of weapons is to destroy or kill, so in the past, in the history of mankind, without weapons, I think the world could be more peaceful. However, we have spent a lot of money and energy to create weapons in the name of world peace, but weapons only create violence and destruction, and now we should say enough is enough,” the Tibetan spiritual leader declared.

“Thus, real world peace comes from the mind, where anger, jealousy, and frustration are sources of violence. Now we should try to strengthen our basic humanity, more compassionate humanity because we are social animals, and any social animal has a sense of community. Therefore, we have to think about the world, about humanity, and on a practical level, we should reduce weapons, eliminate weapons, and we should pay more attention to our inner peace, which is based on compassion, altruism. We must live side by side, and in this way, we can truly build a world of peace and happiness,” the Nobel Peace Prize laureate said.

“Today’s world is heavily interdependent, continent to continent, East to West, West to East. In the past, we were only concerned with our own areas, nations, and continents, but now, like global warming, it is not just a national problem, but a problem for the whole world,” His Holiness the Dalai Lama said.

“This morning I had my body checked with a Tibetan and modern doctor and they found that my health is very good, so I believe it is not just the medication that keeps me healthy, it is the way I think, always being at peace. So peace of mind really helps create a healthy body, constant anger and fear are very bad for our health,” His Holiness the Dalai Lama concluded and then began the question and answer session.