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His Holiness Takes Part in Summit of Nobel Laureates

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Rome, November 29 – His Holiness the Dalai Lama yesterday attended the 4 th Summit of the Nobel Laureates at the City Hall in Rome. The proceedings began with the Nobel Laureates signing the Summit Inauguration parchment followed by presentation of Man for Peace Award 2003 by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Mr. Walter Veltroni, Mayor of Rome to representatives of the Italian famous singers’ Football Association which has, through exhibition matches, raised millions of Euros for humanitarian projects around the world.

Mr. Walter Veltroni, Mayor and Mr. Gorbachev, conveners of the Summit welcomed the Nobel laureates, which included, among others, Oscar Arias Sanchez of Costa Rica, Shimon Peres of Israel and Lech Walesa. UN and NGOs, which have also won Nobel Peace Prize, are participants in the three-day Summit.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama spoke at a panel discussion called ‘Thoughts about Peace’, alongside Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, Emeritus President of the Inter-religious dialogue, the Vatican, Chief Rabbi of Rome, Stefano Disegniellah and Abdellah Redouane, General Secretary of the Italian Islamic Cultural Centre in Rome.

His Holiness stated that despite fundamental differences in philosophy all the major world religions have the same message of love, compassion, sense of caring, tolerance, self-discipline, contentment, etc.

He categorised spirituality into secular and religious ethics. He defined secular ethics as the basic good human qualities such as warm heart, honesty and sense of caring. His Holiness further elaborated the importance of following and practicing one’s own religion sincerely and making it a part of daily life. He pointed out that the concept of one religion, one truth is important and relevant for the individual believer while he stressed on the need to embrace the concept of several truths and several religions for community and society.

In his concluding remarks, His Holiness stated that genuine peace comes through inner peace and that inner disarmament must be realised through efforts to reduce hatred, anger, greed, ill feeling, etc., and external disarmament by a step by step approach through reduction and elimination of armaments and demilitarization globally.

His Holiness described the last century as the century of war and bloodshed. His Holiness appealed to all to strive to turn this century into a century of non-violence and dialogue.

His Holiness leaves for India today. His Holiness will be arriving in Darjeeling on 2 December on the invitation of the Dharma Chakra Committee, Darjeeling, comprising of all the Buddhist communities in the Darjeeling area.

A report sent by Tibet Bureau, Geneva

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