Promoting a culture of peace

Peace Times 1

Lama Gangchen during a private audience with H.H Pope John Paul II on 13 January 1993

Exchange of blessings with Mother Teresa, in The home for the destitute in Calcutta, April 1995

With Boutros Ghali in Istanbul, June 1996 during Habitat II City Summit

With Elio Toaff, Chief Rabbi of the Italian Jewish Community in Rome, June 1996

“We cannot leave all this physical, mental and environmental pollution; this television, these newspapers, all this darkness as a legacy to the children of tomorrow. I hope you will all join in to offer an inner peace education message for the next millennium”. With these words Lama Gangchen concluded his speech at The “New Child” congress organised by Cyber and held in Milan, Italy, in March 1996.

During the recent months, Lama Gangchen has been talking a lot about education, as a focal point for the future development of mankind, emphasizing the difference between formal and non-formal education. The formal education we receive at school seems to have lost its deeper meaning, an academic system aimed at preparing youngsters for working life, this is of course excellent in itself, but not sufficient.

A formal education alone, which is nearly always based on competition, fear of judgement, punishment, comparison, can leave such emotional gaps in the child as to prevent him or her from truly integrating into life. A child does above all need a non-formal education, to teach him or her how to deal with emotions, how to transform anger and fear; how to develop love and compassion, and how to communicate positively with others; in one word, how to be happy.

“Even if we do not have any high degrees, but we do have a good non-formal education, our life works well. If we can integrate formal and non-formal education then our life is really perfect”.

Non-formal education results from the messages we receive on a deeper level, from our family, from school, in our everyday life, and also from television, magazines, radio, theatre and so on. To transform all this positively, the mass media have to become vehicles of the positive peace and non-formal education messages. “The mass media should not be afraid to lose any profits; on the contrary, although people are complaining, they still buy newspapers and watch more and more television” says Lama Gangchen.

As far as education is concerned, number one on the abscence list is school. The need to offer children a global education which reaches a deeper level of their personality, must be brought to the attention of both governments and international organisations, as Lama Gangchen has recently started doing, on the occasion of various conferences held at the United Nations and other of its agencies. We could start with simple things says Lama Gangchen: perhaps dedicating a few minutes to inner peace education before starting the actual lessons. A short silent meditation could suffice: doing so everyday throughout one’s life can certainly give better results.

Lama Gangchen’s educational projects, as far as non-formal education is concerned, are taking form within the Global Open University, the free university for inner peace, world peace and environmental peace education, founded last year.

For further information about United Nations activities contact The Lama Gangchen World Peace Foundation.

Tel/Fax +39 2 6554711