Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 46-minute talk delivered in 1986, Geshe Sonam Rinchen argues that world peace depends not on external forces or policy alone, but on the transformation of individual minds. He begins by identifying the root cause of conflict: the domination of self-concern and egoistic self-cherishing that breeds pride, jealousy, and competitiveness. These destructive attitudes, he explains, spiral into disputes within families, between nations, and across the world. Rinchen then shifts to the antidote: recognizing our complete dependence on others for everything we possess and enjoy, and cultivating unconditional love and compassion in response. He emphasises that personal peace precedes world peace, and that each individual’s development of kindness creates a ripple effect through their environment. The teaching ends with acknowledgment that inner transformation must accompany conventional means—demonstrations, disarmament negotiations—rather than replace them. Suitable for anyone interested in Buddhist perspectives on conflict and peace-building.
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Teacher: Geshe Sonam Rinchen
Collection: Peace (Geshe Sonam Rinchen)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 46.0 minutes
Words: ~5,886
Everybody has got here together. People from all different backgrounds have come here tonight and I’m very happy to be here. The reason why we’ve come here is because somehow or other we’re interested in peace. This is the year of peace, nineteen eighty six, and our very interest shows that we are not only interested for ourselves, but that we are concerned with the well-being of others. The human beings that live in this world are all very closely related to one another.
And we know that if things go well in human society, then we will also enjoy some happiness. If things go badly in human society, we will suffer along with the rest. We know this from our own experience, and we also know from our own experience that if the elements are in balance, in equipoise, if the outer elements are in equipoise, then we too feel well. If the outer elements are disturbed, are out of harmony, are out of balance, we suffer from that too. So we are closely related to our environment and the living beings in it.
Therefore we have a strong responsibility responsibility towards both. If our human society, if our world is peaceful and harmonious, never mind the human beings, even small insects will feel at ease and happy. And if our world is in strife, in turmoil, then every living creature is affected. So to concern ourselves with peace is something extremely important. We have to do this.
It’s our responsibility and it is a heavy responsibility. We know perfectly well that we do have a relationship with other living creatures. We are aware of that. And now how can we achieve a harmonious existence with them? We have to look at what controls our thinking of world peace, we have to look at the causes which create disharmony, causes which create turmoil and strife, and we have to look for the causes which could create a happy and peaceful world.
If our world and the living creatures within that world and their happiness and their suffering are all somehow created by some external force, then we have to look to that external force in order to create peace and happiness. If it’s some external force that creates all this, then we have to look to that external force. That’s where we need to put our hope. Then we need to look if it isn’t an external force that creates it. We have to look within ourselves.
We have to look at what it is that creates happiness and that creates suffering within ourselves. Most people in the world are interested in peace. Most people want there to be peace. Of course, it’s not everybody that wants peace. There are some people that thrive by creating strife, by by stirring things up.
Conventionally, what we call peace is a state where there is no war, where people are able to live in harmony and accord. And although nineteen eighty six is the year of peace and people are concerned with peace this year, if we look around the world, there’s strife, there are wars, there are disputes, there’s unrest everywhere. So it’s impossible for one powerful person to create peace throughout the world. So I think that peace is dependent on each and every living creature in the world. External or general peace therefore lies relies on each individual.
Each individual has to create, has to work at creating it. I think that’s where the responsibility lies. If that is so, then each person, each person is responsible for working together with other people to create peace in the world. And we have that individual responsibility, but it’s impossible for one or two people to create world peace. All of us have to work together to create that peace.
Since we are all interrelated, since we all have responsibility towards each other, each individual person must work towards that end. If each individual person can be peaceful, then world peace will be achieved. We therefore have to look at why we can’t achieve internal peace. What prevents us from achieving personal individual peace? And we have to see, we have to see clearly the reasons for that and not we shouldn’t look outside, we shouldn’t look outside, we should look for the reasons within ourselves.
Since there isn’t an external force which creates our happiness and our suffering, we have to look within ourselves. Of course, there are certain external factors which contribute to our own lack of peace. But the most important factors lie within ourselves. If we look at our own minds and try to distinguish the thoughts which are constructive and productive of peace and the thoughts which are destructive to differentiate the ones from the others and if we try hard, if we work at decreasing, at diminishing and finally eliminating the ones that are non productive and we keep enhancing the ones which are constructive and which are contributive to a peaceful situation, then it will be possible for us to achieve external peace as well. When we think about the problems and difficulties, the suffering that besets us, we tend to blame it on other people.
We tend to blame these things on other people. We tend to blame these things on external factors always. But actually, if we look hard, if we examine ourselves, we’ll see that all these things spring from certain negative states of mind. On the one hand, we have a very, very strong self concern, a very strong self-cherishing and egoistic self-cherishing that is preoccupied only with our own comfort, with our own well-being. And then on the other hand, we do actually recognize that all other living creatures are like ourselves, that they long for happiness, they long to be free from difficulties, from problems, from suffering.
We actually recognize that. We know that that’s true. And then we can also come to a realization that we, each person, is just a single individual, whereas the others are in the majority. The others means all other living creatures, and that it is important to be prepared to sacrifice certain things, that it is important to be able to sacrifice one’s personal comfort in order to establish the well-being of others, in order to make sure that others are not neglected, that others are not suffering. What we need to do, therefore, is work at decreasing this strong self concern that we have, at decreasing egoistic concern with our own well-being, with our own comfort, the thought that is only concerned with oneself and neglects others.
If we really want peace, if we want peace and serenity, tranquility, then we must realize that everything which is the opposite of that, strife, disputes, wars, quarrels, all these things spring from such a strong egoistic thought. While we cherish ourselves in this egoistic way, while we’re only concerned with establishing our own well-being, with being well thought of by others, acquiring a good reputation, acquiring possessions, acquiring status while we’re completely concerned with these things. We are concerned with these things alone, while we want everything good just for ourselves. We involve ourselves in all sorts of activities, physical, verbal and mental activities of a certain kind. As long as we have that constant concern, then we feel superior to other people.
We feel pride if we have better situation or if our knowledge or if our possessions are somehow superior to others we immediately feel conceited, we feel better than they are. And if they have better things than we have or are cleverer or in some way do better than we are doing, then we feel jealous, we feel envious of them. With that enviousness comes competitiveness. If somebody says something to us which we don’t like, something which hurts us a little or is critical of us, then immediately we feel irritated, we feel angry and aggressive. So as long as we have in our hearts that kind of self concern, as long as we are completely involved with our own comfort and well-being, as long as we neglect others, peace is just impossible.
Because with that kind of attitude, one wants the profit, the victory for oneself, one wants others to lose, to suffer the loss, to be conquered. That’s the kind of attitude, that polarization. And as long as there’s that polarization, peace is an impossibility. As long as there’s a trace of that in our hearts, parents and children will be out of harmony. Husbands and wives will also be divided.
So that kind of thought divides us all. Even members of the same family, brothers and sisters, will be set against each other and countries will be hostile to one another. And even within the same country, different states will be hostile to one another, different leaders will be hostile to another one another, employers and employees will be hostile to one another. As long as we’re involved, as long as we have this greed to be winning all the time, to be doing well, to be winning, and hope at the same time that the others are going to lose out in some way, that they are not going to do as well as we are doing ourselves. Harmony is impossible.
We shouldn’t look outside, we shouldn’t look outwards. We shouldn’t look for the causes outside ourselves. We should look within ourselves, recognize that we do have these attitudes, that we do harbor that kind of thought, and regard that concern, regard that thought as our real enemy. If we don’t if we fail to recognize that selfishness as our real enemy and look for the causes elsewhere, look for ways to create peace, we’ll not find them. So if somebody who actually is quite well qualified to advise us tells us to do something and not to do something else, to keep away from a certain course of action and to adopt a positive course of action, we will be quite incapable of accepting it because his advice will not be in accordance with our selfishness, with this selfish concern that we have.
And so we’ll instantly, automatically reject reject it. And because one is so dominated by this selfish concern, one won’t be able to even consider his advice. Will just reject it out of hand and stubbornly stick to whatever one considers the correct course of action. And of course, he will be quite incapable of helping one if one is so stubborn. Whether it’s your teachers or your friends or anybody who actually is capable of giving you some sound advice, you’ll not just reject the advice, you’ll feel angry with that person for having offered it.
And while we are dominated by that selfishness, by that constant preoccupation with securing our own position, while we are dominated by that thought, we will always think that our own way of doing things is the correct way and that will prevent us from seeing our own mistakes, own shortcomings. If one’s blind to one’s own shortcomings, if somebody else tries to point them out, one will naturally feel annoyed with that person, one will disparage that person. As soon as you start disparaging other people, looking down on them, of course they feel that and that’s something which they don’t like. And while you feel that everybody is hostile to you because you’re so sure that the way you’re doing things is right and you think that their advice to you is wrong and that they’re somehow getting at you while you can think in this way, then you become really paranoid. In the extreme you have very strong paranoia because you think everybody in the world is against you.
Then you think you haven’t done anything yourself, you’ve done nothing at all, but everybody else is trying to harm you, doing things to you. You feel really really upset. You feel upset about it and you can only see hostility surrounding you. We know perfectly well that people who think they know best, people who always disparage others and are critical of others always and have this very, very strong idea of their own action is always correct. They find themselves eventually without friends.
It’s impossible for people to relate to them because they’re so obstinate. It’s the same with countries. If a country isolates itself, thinking that its own policies are all that counts, thinking that its own way of action is the only correct way of action, soon enough it will find that it doesn’t have any other countries willing to support it or back it up. If we act like that, always just concerned with ourselves, then we are no better than the animals that eat smaller animals. See it all the time between nations.
The stronger nations eat up or destroy the smaller nations. Then you also have just like as weaker or smaller animals can gang up and destroy one big animal so you can have a whole lot of small countries getting together and trying to destroy a bigger country. When we’re like that, we really lose our humanity. We lose the thing that is special to humans which makes us superior to animals because we can think extensively about helping others. We can really see things from a completely different perspective.
We can concern ourselves with the well-being of others. We can think about how to be useful to others. This is something which animals don’t really have capacity to do. If we examine our own lives and if we look at the world situation we can see that all the difficulties, all the problems and all the discord stem from this kind of selfishness. But actually human beings aren’t intrinsically bad.
They are not intrinsically selfish. They are capable of getting rid of that selfishness. They are capable of decreasing that concern of transforming and doing something better with their minds. There are all sorts of people who do really bad things, who create a lot of strife, who make problems for other people. Even those people could get rid of this intense desire to create problems and difficulties for others.
Even people who are really involved in doing a lot of bad things. Even they could get rid of that attitude, that compulsion. We all have the ability to become kinder, to develop a good heart, to develop concern for others, to decrease our self concern. This is the only route, the only path to peace. Peace depends on the kindness and goodness which each individual is capable of developing.
If we are all capable of doing it, then we can achieve world peace. And for each individual, if a single individual is able to develop a peaceful, a tranquil state of mind then his life becomes peaceful and that peacefulness affects the people who are connected with him. The people with whom he comes into contact, the living beings that he comes into contact with are all affected by his own internal peace. So we have to begin by creating our own microcosm of peace. We have to create our own little peace and then that can spread and become more powerful and extend.
But it’s up to us individually to begin working at it. If we are able to develop serenity, if we, each one of us, can develop tranquility, then we have something to tell others about. If we actually do it ourselves, then others can look at us, they can see what we are like, then we can talk about peace, about serenity, and then we can really affect others. If you think of a family, if the father and mother in that family don’t get ruffled and disturbed easily, if they are serene, if their minds are serene, if they are more concerned with others, if they are considerate towards each other, if they really want the other to be happy, this will affect their children. It’s inevitable.
The children will be affected. In that way, slowly, slowly, you can affect the whole of the society in which you live. If we do this ourselves, if we try to live in this way, if we change our lifestyle, then we have a right to talk about world peace, about disarmament, about all these things, if we’re prepared to work on ourselves first. It’s true that our present position is one in which we’re quite right to be afraid. We should be afraid because now it’s unlike conventional warfare where there was one side that won and one side that lost.
Now if there’s war, I think I don’t know so much about the situation, he says, but I think that we’ll all lose. Everybody here is probably quite educated. I know you are educated. The thing is that we need to develop our kindness. We need to develop good hearts.
And if we are able to decrease, diminish the bad and harmful thoughts that we have, the destructive thoughts that we have, if we are able to enhance the positive and constructive thoughts that we have, then there is a possibility, a real possibility of achieving peace. It’s for sure that if we become more positive, if we are able to generate more positive energy, our whole situation will improve. Everything around us will become better. The places where we find ourselves, our environment will improve as well. We will find that our crops and that our harvests yield better.
We’ll find that everything will improve if we ourselves can generate more positive energy. No doubt that there is a close relationship between the microcosm, the human being, and the environment, the macrocosm. There is a very close relationship. It’s for sure that if somebody who has tremendous potential, who has great qualities and who has a strong spirituality is living somewhere, the environment around that place also is enhanced. Somebody who is concerned with others welfare, who is primarily concerned with improving others conditions can definitely affect the the environment that is around him.
We know that. We can see it with our own eyes. We know just as well that somebody who has many destructive thoughts, somebody who has a destructive attitude towards life, who doesn’t really care about other living creatures, about other human beings can cause an enormous amount of havoc in the place that he is living, living, can even destroy a large chunk of the world if he so wishes. So we must determine, we should determine to decrease the selfishness, the selfish concern with our own comfort, with our own well-being, this thought that always puts the self first and enhance our concern for others. That’s the very root of world peace.
If self concern, if selfishness is the root of disharmony, is the root of conflict, then if we eliminate that cause, we are bound to be able to achieve peace. The root of peace is the feeling that others are more important because they are in the majority, that others’ needs, others’ happiness is more important than one’s own and the attitude that is prepared to make some sacrifices for others. Others, other living creatures are worthy of our love. They deserve our love because we actually can’t exist without them. We are completely dependent on other living creatures.
All our happiness is related to others. All our happiness is dependent on others. And the alleviation of our problems, the alleviation of our suffering comes about through others as well. Since we are dependent for both of these things on others, what a mistake it is to consider them as an enemy, to consider them as an adversary, to see them as hostile. We have got things absolutely topsy-turvy.
We think that our self concern is our best friend. We think that this selfish attitude we have is our best friend that this is what going to help us. We think that others are somehow hostile to us, that they are the enemy. We consider them as the enemy and our own self concern, our own securing, this constant securing of our own position, we think of that as a friend. It’s easy to understand or recognize our dependence on others.
We just have to think about the clothes that we wear. We wouldn’t have these clothes if it weren’t for a countless number of other living beings and the food that we eat, the places that we live in. We’re completely dependent on others for all these things, the things that we use throughout our daily lives. So it’s not just human beings that are dependent on. It’s other creatures as well.
If we think of animals, if we think of a woollen jumper that we are wearing, that was on some animals back before. Somebody had to come along and shear the sheep and then the wool was processed and then the jumper was manufactured or knit. There were a lot of steps, a lot of stages in which others were involved. It didn’t just come from nowhere. We didn’t have it when we were born.
We didn’t have a woollen jumper to wear that was born along with us. When we think of this theatre that we are in right now, the people who built it, there’s probably not one person who was involved in the building of this theatre here now. If it hadn’t been for the people who transported the different building materials, put them together for carpenters and people who made the different fittings in this theater, we wouldn’t have this place to get together at this time. We wouldn’t be able to sit here so comfortably. So we needed their work.
We’re dependent on their work for what we have now. Everything that we have, everything that we enjoy, all the things that we use are things that we have because of others. When we came into this world, we arrived completely naked. We didn’t have any possessions. We had nothing with us.
No one is born with clothes on. The only thing we can do is just look around a little bit and wave our arms and legs around when we are born. And what we are now is because of what others have done for us. If it hadn’t been for others, we wouldn’t be way we are now. We wouldn’t be capable of doing the things we can do now.
We wouldn’t have the skills that we have now. If we are so dependent on others and it’s really easy to see if one just thinks about it a little. If we really are so dependent on others, if we have needed them so badly, then they have been very kind to us. I mean it is through their kindness that we are the way we are now. And in that case, we have a debt to repay.
We owe them gratitude and therefore we need to concern ourselves with their well-being. If we regard all those living creatures, the humans and the animals on which we are dependent, all those living creatures whose kindness has somehow nurtured us, whose help has nurtured and sustained us, if we regard them as our enemies, then we’re quite foolish and absurd. Actually, we should revere and respect the other living creatures because of the way they have treated us, because we have needed them so badly, we have been nurtured and sustained by them. Because of this, we should revere them, we should respect them. If we concern ourselves with alleviating the problems and difficulties and the suffering of others, if we concern ourselves with trying to give them happiness, create a better world for them to live in, we’ll find that our own personal situation improves automatically.
It will improve even though we’re not concerned with it. I’ve never heard of anybody who has worked hard for others, who has tried to improve the situation of other people, of other living creatures around him who has been thought badly of and who has not received help when he really needed it. Normally people who are prepared to sacrifice their own comfort for others’ well-being, normally people who work hard to establish good living conditions for others, People who really put themselves out for others are loved do become famous and well known. People who do this with sincere heart, they reap a whole lot of benefits just automatically from what they are doing. People like that are well thought of.
They become famous. They become famous because other people feel attracted towards them, feel admiration for them. We know perfectly well that there are other people who are famous as well, famous for the horrible things they have done. So you can have two kinds of fame. It is really important for us to try and develop this attitude of revering, of having reverence for other living creatures, of feeling that we need to do something for them, attracted to helping them.
We need to think of their situation. We need to think of the situation which other human beings and animals find themselves in. If we just think about the difficulties which human beings alone endure, when we think of areas of the world where there is war, where there is famine, where people suffer sickness, epidemics. Can find so many examples. It’s not difficult to think about that.
There are suffering from problems to do with their agriculture, with water supplies, where food is really scarce, where famine is constantly imminent. And even in a place like Australia where there isn’t where there is no famine, still if we look around, if we think about the people we know, if we look in our society, we find that people are suffering, that people are experiencing problems constantly, day and night. And we need to think about how to alleviate all that suffering, all those problems which people endure. And it’s important for us to try and help people not to become discouraged, not to give up, not to be depressed by the situations that they find themselves in. To involve ourselves in working for others, the most important thing that we have to cultivate is tolerance and patience.
We have to be prepared to tolerate certain difficulties ourselves when we are trying to work for others. It therefore becomes important for us to try and enhance and cultivate our tolerance, our patience if we are in a position where we are trying to help others, where we are trying to work for others benefit. On the other hand, we know what we are like. We tend to be irritated, we tend to want to retaliate as soon as somebody does something to hurt us, as soon as somebody says something critical. We tend to respond like this very, very quickly.
If we are always ready to respond in this way, we are not really going to be able to work effectively for other people. Anger, anger and aggression are like a fire. When you have got really angry, when your anger has really got going, you will find that the palms of your hands are wet, that your face turns red. The next thing you do is you say something nasty and maybe you do something nasty, you make some nasty gesture and you see how quickly you have disturbed everything around you. You yourself are disturbed and you instantly disturb your environment.
So instead of anger we should try to cultivate love which is the wish to make others happy, make the other happy and compassion which is the wish to rid the other of problems and suffering. If we want to cultivate love and compassion, if we want these to grow within us, we have to be able to see others as worthwhile. We have to see others as valuable. We have to see others as worth cherishing and as somehow attractive and lovable. So the basis of peace is love and compassion.
And in order to develop love and compassion, we need to see others as lovable. In order to see others as lovable, in order to find them appealing, to find them attractive, we have to decrease that self concern, that strong self concern which sees everybody else as an enemy, which sees everybody else as an adversary, and we have to enhance our concern for others, our love and warmth for others. This is my recipe for peace. And now if there’s anything you would like to ask or to say about that, please do so. And if you have some advice to give me, then I’ll be glad to receive it.
What you say is true that this is a very critical time And while I still recommend that we need to cultivate kindness and a good heart, which I feel are of prime importance, and indeed we need to begin immediately with that. At the same time, we must use conventional means to try and avert war. I’m not suggesting that we use, that we only try to cultivate goodness, cultivate love and compassion and neglect conventional means which are at our disposal. We must do that as our, we must take responsibility, individual responsibility to cultivate such attitudes and at the same time use whatever conventional means we can find such as demonstrations, such as trying to achieve disarmament, trying to find ways to create accord between nations, we must employ all those means, but at the same time, we need to concentrate on our personal development. I think that the people who are working for peace, people who are involved in various activities to try and bring about peace are extremely important to us that you know we should feel a great gratitude towards them and it’s up to us individually to try and cultivate kindness and goodness and to give support to those movements which are involved with trying to achieve world peace.
And even if individually sometimes we are not able to take action to bring about peace. If for some reason we can’t involve ourselves with the peace movement, if there’s nothing that we can do personally, nevertheless we can help and support those who are working for peace by creating positive energy. It’s possible for us to pray that they live long, pray that their work may be successful, and at the same time cultivate positive attitudes in our own personal lives, create positive energy in whatever way we can personally. We should do this because prayer too is effective. The very wish that they should be successful, that they should live long in order to accomplish their work, such thoughts do create positive energy and they can do something to contribute.
Of course, thoughts aren’t enough. If it’s possible for you to do something active, then it’s your responsibility to do whatever you can whether physically or verbally to support those who are trying to work for peace. So what you say is quite correct. We are in a very dangerous position at the moment and it is necessary to act swiftly. I can’t think of anything else apart from what I’ve said.
He remembers that there was somebody, a philosopher and somebody who was lecturing in many different places who came to Dharamsala in India which is the place where he lives, which is the place where the Dalai Lama lives. There was a meeting between Tibetan scholars and this philosopher. He was talking about world peace and so on and asking if the Tibetan scholars and sages had any recommendations to make. Then of course they came to the subject of compassion but then he said, Well, people in the West are too busy to meditate on compassion. People in the West are too busy to try and cultivate compassion.
Is there anything else that we can do? So they tried to suggest to him, you know, first of all they had to find out what compassion meant because in order to talk about things like compassion you have to define what you are talking about, define your terms. So they spent some time defining their terms and then the scholars who had been asked to participate in the discussion suggested ways of cultivating compassion because in Buddhism there are various techniques one can use to do this. When he heard about those techniques he was aghast at the amount of time it would take. He said, This is going to be impossible because we are all far too busy.
Of course, while it’s possible for one to cultivate compassion all the time in whatever one does in one’s daily activities without necessarily sitting down on a meditation cushion and taking a whole lot of time to meditate about it, although it’s possible to do that, it’s very difficult to transform one’s normal attitudes. It does take time to bring about a transformation to effect a change. The more people who can develop kindness and goodness, the more people who can develop concern for others, the more powerful the momentum of that will be. Their actions which are motivated by such thoughts will be positive, will be constructive. The more people who are thinking like that, who are working at it, the more one will be able to achieve.
We all talk about lucky, you know, everybody wants to be lucky, everybody wants lucky things to happen to them. Well, there are all sorts of ways of making lucky things happen. You have to create the causes. I’m talking about the means for achieving luckiness. These are the means, these are the ways that you create causes for good luck.
I think everybody really deep down agrees that they want good luck, that they want happiness and there is a relationship between positive energy and happiness. Have this tendency to love those who love us. If we are loved, we respond with love. If we only love those who love us and don’t love those who don’t love us, then our love is very partial. Our love is biased in that case.
The reason is because our love is mixed up with attachment and desire. So our love is inextricably mixed up with attachment and desire. Unconditional real love or unconditional love is love which is concerned with the well-being of the other, which is only concerned with the other’s happiness, is not concerned with what one is getting back. So if we only love those who love us, it’s like a transaction, a business transaction. Conditional love is satisfied if the other is happy, if the other’s happiness is achieved.
Unconditional love is satisfied. Unconditional love doesn’t look for any return. It’s not concerned with what’s going to come back. Conditional love is always biased and because you only love those who love you and dislike those who don’t love you, dislike those who don’t love you, you have don’t instant arising of negative emotions. You have desire and attachment on the one hand, and you’ve got aggression aversion on the other hand.