Written by ágnes Lukács
Tuesday, 28 September 2010
Tenzin Gyatso, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, left Hungarians with a message of peace when he departed from Budapest last Tuesday. The exiled Tibetan spiritual leader spent four days in Hungary teaching about the path to inner calm and happiness. In his lectures and discussions he also spoke about the common ground between the world’s religions and even addressed the economic crisis, which he attributes to human weaknesses.
He received the title of honorary citizen of Budapest from city mayor Gábor Demszky, who spoke of the impression the spiritual leader had already made ahead of his visit to Budapest. “For a moment a spirit of peace and cooperation, where party affiliations and other differences play no role, prevailed in the city hall,” Demszky said, describing the session when the council voted on the Dalai Lama’s honorary citizenship.
On Monday the Dalai Lama visited parliament to speak to representatives of the Hungarian-Tibetan Circle of Friends about questions of autonomy and life in exile. The Dalai Lama said it was understandable that there was no official meeting with the country’s political dignitaries. “It is not my intention to cause difficulties for the country or its politicians,” he said, in the knowledge that politicians generally do not want to raise the hackles of their important trade partner, China. Accordingly the Dalai Lama also spoke with great understanding about the quarrels between Tibet and China.
Those who attended his lectures could realise that the best advice is the simplest advice. The Dalai Lama left Hungarians with a message of peace and his opinion on how the country can recover from its economic misery. “I have heard that Hungary’s economic situation is not too good but you mustn’t give up. Nobody has said that life is easy. You have to work hard but with optimism. The solution won’t simply fall from the sky,” he said with a smile. The whole country needed to join forces and work with confidence if Hungary was to recover from its plight.
Going on to speak about the world economic crisis and its causes, he surprisingly gave an answer as to how the crisis in general can be solved: with honesty and a pure heart, two concepts rarely associated with the world of finance. “Human weaknesses were essentially to blame for the financial crisis: greed, speculation, ignorance and fear. It is necessary to operate in the world of business too with honesty, sense and a pure heart, and then everything will turn out well,” the Dalai Lama told the press in parliament.
Asked whether he could help Hungarians make the right decision in the coming local elections, the Dalai Lama said that the “right leaders act with a pure heart and have a vision before their eyes”. Finding out who satisfies that principle was also the responsibility of journalists. “People try to show their best side to the outside world but behind the facade their real face is hidden. You are media representatives, so you should be like elephants with huge trunks, with which you can smell politicians, businesspeople and other personalities equally well from the front and behind. And if you catch wind of something, then you most report on it honestly and objectively.”
