It is time to have another look at the way we are pushing localized issues. Of late, it has become increasingly difficult for us to identify the boundaries of what is considered the limit within which a localized issue is relevant. There is a thing called universal responsibility but driven by our sole intense vested interests the localized issues encompass everything blurring the red lines. There is a great deal of anxiety about this dangerous trend. The urgency for the need to subdue this danger rings very loud today.
The trend we are experiencing is perhaps due to lack of a culture of retrospection, investigation and debate. Our society has not been encouraged to inculcate this habit. The growing lack of concern for truth is perhaps pushing the situation to this far. This is indeed the creation of the people who inhabit the highest realms of social punditry.
In one of his comments the Dalai Lama has advocated that while even pushing the localized issues “we need to cultivate a universal responsibility for one another and for the planet we share, based on a good heart and awareness.” He says, “All of us human beings want freedom and the right to determine our own destiny as individuals…which is human nature…at the same time, the problems we face today—violent conflicts, destruction of nature, poverty, hunger and so on—are mainly problems created by humans…they can be resolved—but only through human effort, understanding and the development of a sense of brotherhood and sisterhood.” He further says, “…spiritual qualities with a realistic and practical attitude will enable us to make a special contribution, in however modest a way.”To do this, the Dalai Lama explains in his autography that a sense of universal responsibility is extremely important. He then concludes the autobiography with ‘a short prayer’ which gives him “great inspiration and determination”—
“For as long as space endures,
And for as long as living beings remain,
Until then may I, too, abide
To dispel the mystery of the world.”
In such time as this when ‘conflict and violence are sustained by the illusion’ of localized issues, the expression of the Dalai Lama ‘whose life is quite unsettled yet a liberating experience,’ alters our perception of the things around us and the world.
