Ethics for the New Millennium

"Yes, I think it is probably right to start with the new millennium of which we have now completed the first decade. A lot of the writing that I am talking about is focused on the idea that we need to do something new in our new millennium and our new century. The Millennium Development Goals are the most specific manifestation of that idea, the objective of really reaching a new level and a new understanding. The Dalai Lama wrote this book not specifically about the Millennium Development Goals but very much in the spirit of the need to create a new global understanding and global ethic, and to make what is now a global society work. Of course, I am very attracted to the Dalai Lama for many aspects of his wisdom and Buddhist ideas and overwhelmingly about the need to put compassion at the centre of our lives and at the centre of our global thinking. Not only to help those in need but actually to help ourselves, because it is the core principle of the Dalai Lama that the way to our own happiness is by attentiveness and compassion to others. It is something I believe and it is something which he says the most eloquently and insightfully of anyone in our time. That is the core message of his ethics. Well, I have been to about 130 countries with my work over the years and of course I have seen great acts of compassion wherever I have gone. But I have also seen the opposite, in blinding cruelty and the astounding neglect of those in need. What I have seen with my own eyes is the capacity, if we have an open spirit and an empathetic approach, to bridge any of the gulfs that exist in the world, whether it’s racial, class, ethnic, linguistic or religious. I have seen co-operation of the most wondrous kinds that span the widest gaps imaginable in terms of the backgrounds of the people involved. For example, when I have had the chance to work in remote pastoralistic communities in the Horn of Africa the human connection that I have observed between my colleagues and the global pastoralists is wonderful. They might not have a lot of common background in life experience but the human connection is so powerful and palpable and so inspiring that for me it epitomises what we should be able to achieve anywhere. We are working in a lot of areas with a lot of conflict but I feel none of that tension or pressure or hate because in any part of the world when people are approached with respect and dignity I think the human connection is overpowering."