The Wisdom of Compassion: Stories of Remarkable Encounters and Timeless Insights by Dalai Lama XIVMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
It is interesting to contrast this book with https://www.goodreads.com/review/show.... Both of the are about spiritual leaders who are doing good for the people. There is no doubt about it. Both have been written by authors who are in awe of the leader that they have written about. But the one by Namrita and Francois Gautier is a pure panegyric on Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, whereas while it is adulatory, it provides concrete examples of discussions of Dalai Lama with various personalities and the adulation is based on these unlike the one on Sri Sri Ravishankar where it just goes on an on how the organizations setup by Ravi Shankar have done this here and done that there.
The surprise about the book is that the author is a Chinese, well not exactly from mainland China but from Hong Kong, probably that explains. The author is a follows Dalai Lama's activities closely when he is not organizing a meeting between the spiritual leader and other towering personnel who are either intellectuals or are out helping people in need.
Of the various meetings that are related in the book some of them are with Ken Robinson, Archbishop Desmond Tutu a neuroscientist from the University of Wisconsin, Richard Davidson, Aaron Beck, interactions with University students in Canada, Sanjit Roy from India who has setup a Barefoot College to educate and empower the poor in the rural India.
In a very interesting conversation between the Dalai Lama and Aaron Beck has Beck stating this "I think, I have been wronged; you did wrong to me. So I have to examine: Did you really wrong me? You may not have, I may have misunderstood what you did, so we have to analyze. And then the second thing is: Even if you did wrong, does that make you a bad person? And, if you are a bad person, do I have to kill you, do I have to punish you! So that is the whole sequence". Profound is the apt word.
Another snippet that stuck in my mind is from the chapter on Matthieu Ricard who was a personal attendant of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, one of the foremost meditation masters of Tibetan Buddhism and the tutor of Dalai Lama. In meeting arranged by the author and Matthieu in Delhi with a group of humanitarians in Delhi the following is stated by the Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama states "My approach: Today's reality is whole world just one body. Everything is a part of me. Understanding this helps reduce negative emotions. Hatred comes because we don't appreciate interdependence. We cause harm, sometimes unintentionally, because we are greedy for money, power. We think these things will make us happy. This is a misunderstanding. Real happiness comes from peace of mind. The only way to obtain is to be altruistic, be compassionate". The author interprets this as "We need to actively help others and we should do t with a genuine sense of compassion, not pity. At a minimum, we should not harm others. Not harming others is a logical extension of idea of interdependence. Since everything is a part of us, harming others would hurt ourselves". He then quotes the following commentary "A human being is part of a whole, called by us 'Universe', a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest - a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty." While it appears to be a commentary by Dalai Lama, it is a quote by Albert Einstein in 1954.
A wonderfully written book. Do Read
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