Dalai Lama says, "We must listen to scientists."

Hey, I can dream. It'd be great if our science-denying president, Donald Trump, and his fact-phobic Republican colleagues would pay attention to what the Dalai Lama said in the most recent issue of TIME magazine.

Oh, plus religious people who embrace prayer and faith over positive action and reason. The Dalai Lama is speaking to them also. I've boldfaced the parts of what he said that I particularly liked. 

These are timely sentiments from the Daiai Lama, since the United States is experiencing the highest levels of COVID cases since the pandemic began, and Trump, along with some clueless Republican governors, is ignoring public health experts. The Republican Governor of Georgia has even forbidden cities in that state from requiring masks be worn. Astounding, but true.

We must act as one to preserve our world

This planet is our only home. Environmental experts say that over the next few decades, global warming will reach such a level that many water resources will go dry. So ecology and combatting global warming are very important.

For example, my country, Tibet, is the ultimate source of water in Asia. Rivers including Pakistan’s Indus, India’s Ganges and Brahmaputra, China’s Yellow River, as well as the Mekong, flow from Tibet’s plateau. So we should pay more attention to the preservation of Tibetan ecology. This is not only for the interest of 6 million Tibetans but all people in this region.

In the past, when I was flying over Afghanistan, there were clear signs that what used to be lakes and streams were already dry. I feel that Tibet also may become like that soon. Regarding Tibet’s political matters, I have already retired. But regarding Tibet’s ecology and very rich culture, I’m fully committed.

We human beings have these marvelous, brilliant minds. But we are also the biggest troublemakers on the planet. Now we should utilize our brains with compassion, and a sense of concern. This is why one of my commitments is promotion of deeper human values.

From birth, we rely on others, particularly our mothers. From then, each individual’s existence entirely depends on a community, because we are a social animal. Community is the source of our happiness, so we must take care of the community. So now, in modern times, the concept of humanity is one community. East, west, north, south: everyone is interdependent.

The modern economy has no national bound­aries. Therefore, now we need a sense of oneness of all 7 billion human beings. In the past, many problems were created because of too much emphasis on our differences, such as nationalities and religions. Now, in modern times, that thinking is out of date. We should think about humanity, about the whole world.

We must listen to scientists and specialists. Their voices and knowledge are very important. And religious people should pay more attention to scientists rather than just pray, pray, pray.

In the ancient Nalanda Buddhist tradition, which we Tibetans follow, everything is investigated and not accepted by faith alone. If through reasoning we find some contradiction, even in Buddha’s own words, then we have the right to reject them. From childhood, I was always engaged in a lot of debate. Our thinking was based not in faith but reasoning.

Buddha himself was not born in a palace but under a tree. He attained enlightenment under a Bodhi tree. When he passed, it was under a tree. One of the rules during our monsoon retreat is that we should not cut down anything green. So this shows that Buddha himself paid attention to green issues.

Hours, minutes and seconds: time never stands still. We also are part of that nature. The past is important, but already past. The future is still in our hands, so we must think about ecology at the global level.

Comments

[Ryan]

Can we just start with the Earth first—humans’ natural habitat. Am I crazy or could all this money going to build a colony on Mars be put to better use saving our own planet?

https://www.spacex.com/human-spaceflight/mars/

[Ryan]

Mmmkay. Here’s the thing. If we can’t manage Global Warming on our own planet by getting the earth’s temp down a few degrees then how do Mars colonizers plan to “warm up” Mars?

This is what SpaceX says about Mars’ climate: “It is a little cold, but we can warm it up.” 😳

“At an average distance of 140 million miles, Mars is one of Earth's closest habitable neighbors. Mars is about half again as far from the Sun as Earth is, so it still has decent sunlight. It is a little cold, but we can warm it up. Its atmosphere is primarily CO2 with some nitrogen and argon and a few other trace elements, which means that we can grow plants on Mars just by compressing the atmosphere. Gravity on Mars is about 38% of that of Earth, so you would be able to lift heavy things and bound around. Furthermore, the day is remarkably close to that of Earth.”

[JIm]

Brian this is insanity? Wavemonkey again
Reincarnation is a scam. There are entities that have an agenda to get people to reincarnate. I've fought them during out of body experiences. They are not all powerful. Not even close. Actually they are rather pathetic because they are afraid of me. When they try to mess with me during dreams and OBEs they rarely show themselves. They either make themselves invisible or disguise themselves (they can change their shape). I had an OBE once where I was in a reincarnation line and some chick tried to force me to reincarnate in 16th century japan. She couldn't do it because I was too strong willed. Also these entities have tried dozens of times to wipe my memory but they can't do it because I'm strong willed. I also know how to deflect memory wipes. So like I said they are not all powerful Not even close. Buddhism is just like any other religion. It gets a few things right but mostly it's full of crap. Pretty much every religion is full of crap. My knowledge of the afterlife comes from lots of out of body experiences. Not from a religion. So I would recommend ditching religions and learning to have OBEs. That way you can see for yourself what the afterlife is like.

[Tim Rimmer]

Yes - you can tell the DL has real concern for the planet.
And he’s alerting us to the global water issue. People, while seemingly aware that glaciers etc are melting and adding to sea-level rise, don’t make the connection that base-flow for many major rivers is glacial melt-water. Base-flow gone when glacier gone. What to do?
“Now we should utilize our brains with compassion, and a sense of concern”.
We’ve got to use science as well as ‘active concern’ to look after our catchments from large to small scale. Most folk know that one very good way is to revegetate with trees - trees/shrubs planted particularly at catchment heads/stream and spring heads help to regulate flow, keep quality up and temperatures less variable. Trees take in our CO2 and return O2 to us. They also help with biodiversity
“Community is the source of our happiness, so we must take care of the community.”
Along with getting involved with a catchment group, if one is able/has time/is inclined - then another great way to help both community and planet is via a Community Garden. Growing stuff to help feed oneself and others is another thing that supports us all mentally and physically. Urgently needed at this time. Organic/permaculture design really useful to grow better and manage constraints imposed by the likes of lack of/variability with water supply.
Best wishes