Deforestation
The Buddhist leader engages a spectacularly appropriate simile to describe the state of Tibetan forests after decades of devastation at the hands of the lumber industry. Areas in the past described as thickly wooded are today:
“clean-shaven like a monk’s head.”
Compassion
The Dalai Lama describes compassion as acting out of concern for other and this is immediately a positive and benevolent behavior because when done, it removes suspicion from the equation. Metaphorically, an act of compassion toward another:
“is as if an inner door is opened, allowing us to reach out”
Anger and Hatred
Those emotions which stand in opposition to compassion are urged to be restrained and controlled lest they begin to control you and obstruct restraint. This is because just like compassion, there is an infinite supply of negative emotions and, in fact, a tendency for them to expand because they are:
“like a river flooding in summer when the snow melts so that, far from being free, our minds are enslaved and rendered helpless by them.”
The Self and the Snake
The text expends a lengthy section examining the notion of what is the “self” and then analyzing the possibility of the self being able to exist independently. The Dalai Lama turns to an interesting metaphor to describe this particular concept to which he does not adhere, suggesting that it is like mistaking a coiled rope for a snake. Since the rope possesses no other properties of a snake other than its appearance and since the snake is not there, it is we who have ascribed existence to the snake just as we do with an independently existing self.
Knowledge or Virtue?
While advocating education and knowledge, the Dalai Lama comes down quite clearly on the side of virtue when the question is an either/or proposition. In fact, there is no ambiguity, room for interpretation or doubt. While encasing his view within figurative language, the literal meaning is unmistakable. Of course, the ideal is knowledge infused with a virtuous understanding:
“The good heart which is the fruit of virtue is by itself a great benefit to humanity. Mere knowledge is not.”
