The Dalai Lama XIV has spent decades as both a refugee and one of the most recognised voices for peace and human dignity on earth. His Nobel Peace Prize reflects an argument he has been making consistently since leaving Tibet: that the problems facing humanity — violence, environmental destruction, loneliness, the suffering of young people in prosperous cities — share a common root in the absence of warmth and compassion. Humankind has made two obvious and costly errors.
The first is using the planet’s resources without restraint, producing the environmental crisis we now inhabit. The second is the historical system of governance by force — kings, dictators, and sometimes religious leaders mobilising armies, one against another, to settle disagreements that cost countless ordinary people their lives. None of them wanted to die.
Looking at the European Union, you see what is possible: nations that spent centuries fighting each other have built a structure of cooperation. The world belongs to seven billion people. Countries belong to their nations.
In a genuinely democratic world, the impulse to kill each other would have far less fuel. He is clear about religion: he does not claim Buddhism is best. Every tradition has its potential for misuse.
The sixth mental level — a peaceful state of mind — is more fundamental than any particular practice or belief, and it is accessible through training in attention and compassion regardless of one’s religion. What he finds most significant is the role of women. The part of the brain responsible for empathy is more developed in women.
When care is needed, women are overwhelmingly present. When aggression is needed, men predominate. The next Dalai Lama, he has said, may well be a woman. He places great hope in women’s capacity to shift the direction of human society away from the competitive mistrust that generates so much of its suffering — toward the warmth that makes genuine flourishing possible.