Ah, That Good and Godly Man...

"There is a virtue, Simmias, which is named courage. Is not that a special attribute of the philosopher?
Certainly.
Again, there is temperance. Is not the calm, and control, and disdain of the passions which even the many call temperance, a quality belonging only to those who despise the body and live in philosophy?
That is not to be denied.
For the courage and temperance of other men, if you will consider them, are really a contradiction.
How is that, Socrates?
Well, he said, you are aware that death is regarded by men in general as a great evil.
That is true, he said.
And do not courageous men endure death because they are afraid of yet greater evils?
That is true.
Then all but the philosophers are courageous only from fear, and because they are afraid; and yet that a man should be courageous from fear, and because he is a coward, is surely a strange thing.
Very true.
And are not the temperate exactly in the same case? They are temperate because they are intemperate - which may seem to be a contradiction, but is nevertheless the sort of thing which happens with this foolish temperance. For there are pleasures which they must have, and are afraid of losing; and therefore they abstain from one class of pleasures because they are overcome by another; and whereas intemperance is defined as "being under the dominion of pleasure," they overcome only because they are overcome by pleasure. And this is what I mean by saying that they are temperate through intemperance.
That appears to be true.
Yet the exchange of one fear or pleasure or pain for another fear or pleasure or pain, which are measured like coins, the greater with the less, is not the exchange of virtue. O my dear Simmias, is there not one true coin for which all things ought to exchange? -- and that is wisdom; and only in exchange for this, and in company with this, is anything truly bought or sold, whether courage or temperance or justice. and is not all true virtue the companion of wisdom, no matter what fears or pleasures or other similar goods or evils may or may not attend her? But the virtue which is made up for these goods, when they are severed from wisdom and exchanged with one another, is a shadow of virtue only, nor is there any freedom or health or truth in her; but in the true exchange there is a purging away of all these things, and temperance, and justice, and courage and wisdom herself are a purgation of them." - Phaedo: Dialogues of Plato

That great good man of peace - the Dalai Lama - came, he saw, he conquered the hearts and minds of those whom he addressed. He is a simple man of simple tastes. A man of good heart. A man of clear and quiet vision. A man of peace, above all. A messenger of virtue.
"Compassion", said he, "firstly is not a sense of pitiness. It is a sense of caring and concern on the basis of respect."

Most surely. Most certainly. That is as it should be. For those of pure heart.

"On a global level, human affection has a very important role," he said. And isn't it the truth? If we deliver kindness and evince an interest in the well-being of others, it is reciprocated in appreciation. Eliciting a like feeling from those who are the recipients of our patience and understanding. We human beings react to the softer side of human interaction, by reflecting it upon the initiator.

He suggests, perhaps half-mockingly, that NATO be re-headquartered from Brussels to Moscow. That Russia must needs be brought into the alliance. And he's right there. As long as the club of NATO remains exclusive and excluding of a proud and powerful country like Russia, there will remain countless show-downs. This too is human nature; to assemble exclusive little cliques the purpose of which is to identify an "outsider" and keep him outside.

China and India, he says thoughtfully, and perhaps more than a little mischievously, should unite as a great Eastern potentate of potent world power, their combined populations handily representative of a good one-third of the world's population. And just incidentally, also representative, in their people, of a good one-half of the world's native intelligence, through sheer accumulated cerebral power.

Ah, but first a very fundamental alteration would have to be effected in the way nature has equipped her human demographic to position for survival. Viewing others with suspicion, as potential rivals for the world's vast stores of natural resources, in a primeval, yet still-unsolved methodology of ascendancy in survival opportunities. The vast tunnel of time behind us throughout which period this stood the fittest in good stead, still equips us in the modern, yet relatively brief-in-time period of existence.

"I always tell people the concept of war is outdated", he said. "On a global level, affection, sense of respect, that friendly attitude, considering people as brothers and sisters, that is the basis of genuine peace. World peace must come from inner peace." Who is there among us who would deny the beauty in that philosophy of existence - the potential of all mankind coming together in the common purpose of peaceful co-existence?

Who among us believes that we will live to see that day? Yet there is an edge to the holy platitudes emitting from his esteemed mouth - to be venerated and well mulled over. For human beings are never, ever without optimism, without hope for the future. Isn't that correct? The time between when Socrates, Plato and Aristotle wrote their words of philosophical wisdom for the ages, and that when, in our modern age, the Dalai Lama re-voices them is vast.

In that interim, what, exactly, has changed in human dynamics and interactions? The Dalai Lama says that despite "pockets of violence", the present century seems to him "much healthier" than the one just past. Case in point: is this his stab at puckish humour? The present century is but seven, coming on eight years of age. The last century amounted to one hundred full years of on-again, off-again world tensions and warfare.

As a man of faith, he is a priceless representative of what we can aspire to. As the reality of mankind's existence attests, we have a long, hard struggle before us.