This morning as I perused The Book of Joy featuring the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, this is what spoke to my heart: The archbishop turns to the Dalai Lama, acknowledging the horrors the Dalai Lama has faced, forced to go into exile at the age of 15, and being the spiritual and political leader of 6 million people who were suffering at the hands of a foreign government.
At the time of the writing of the book, the Dalai Lama had been living in exile from his beloved country for 56 years. So it seemed the question everyone wants to ask – “why are you not morose?”
After deciphering through his translator the meaning of “morose”, the Dalai Lama answers back that when he thinks of the trouble of his people, he is of course sad, “many of us have become refugees,” he answers.
“When I look at only that, then I worry. But when I look at the world, there are a lot of problems…. When we see these things, we realize that not only do we suffer, but so do many of our human brothers and sisters. So when we look at the same event from a wider perspective, we will reduce the worrying and our own suffering.”
He speaks of the importance of developing compassion. The archbishop then offers his own view, “There are going to be frustrations in life. It is part of the warp and woof. The question is not, “How do I escape? It is: How can I use this as something positive?”
He later goes on to add that he feels God crying at the suffering of His beloved people, even the suffering of the refugee who is invisible to the rest of the world. This refugee is God’s precious child.
But, when God sees people coming in from other parts of the world to help, to make things better, then God begins to smile.
“And when God sees you (leaning toward the Dalai Lama), and hears how you try to help God’s children, God smiles”.
The generosity of kindness toward each other between these two great leaders of different cultures and faiths brings me such joy!
If you’d like to see more of these two, here’s a link to the documentary called Mission Joy!
And, here’s a link to some deep insight about compassion in troubled times.
I am inspired by the way humans create meaning out of our suffering.
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