Peace, in the sense of the absence of war, is of little value to someone who is dying of hunger or cold. It will not remove the pain of torture inflicted on a prisoner of conscience. It does not comfort those who have lost their loved ones in floods caused by senseless deforestation in a neighboring country. Peace can only last where human rights are respected, where the people are fed, and where individuals and nations are free.
True peace with oneself and with the world around us can only be achieved through the development of mental peace. The other phenomena mentioned above are similarly interrelated. Thus, for example, we see that a clean environment, wealth or democracy mean little in the face of war, especially nuclear war, and that material development is not sufficient to ensure human happiness.
Material progress is of course important for human advancement. In Tibet, we paid much to little attention to technological and economic development, and today we realize that this was a mistake. At the same time, material development without spiritual development can also cause serious problems. In some countries too much attention is paid to external things and very little importance is given to inner development. I believe both are important and must be developed side by side so as to achieve a good balance between them. Tibetans are always described by foreign visitors as being a happy, jovial people. This is part of our national character, formed by cultural and religious values that stress the importance of mental peace through the generation of love and kindness to all other living sentient beings, both human and animal. Inner peace is the key: if you have inner peace, the external problems do not affect your deep sense of peace and tranquility. In that state of mind you can deal with situations with calmness and reason, while keeping your inner happiness. This is very important. Without this inner peace, no matter how comfortable your life is materially, you may still be worried, disturbed or unhappy because of circumstances.
-The Dali Lama, The Nobel Lecture, December 11, 1989
What strikes me most about the Dali Lama’s speech is his reference to the fact that peace has little meaning if one is in varying states of suffering. If one is hungry, cold, abused, unloved, homeless, etc. then what good is peace if you are missing the basic necessities of humanity, how can one seek peace with such a high priority when they are merely trying to survive. It is often this survival mode that we go into that breads the roots of conflict and hate, for one will often do anything to survive or see that their family is safe and cared for. Thus it is essential if we are to have a world at true peace, that we work tirelessly to eradicate poverty and disease. That we place our focuses heavily on education and sustainable development.
