Direct Line with Lama Michel

Peace Times 12

On the 2nd of July, Lama Michel, the Brazilian recognised as the reincarnation of a great Tibetan Buddhist master, was18 years old: happy birthday! From this number, his regular contribution to «Peace Times» will be given in the form of a short teaching.

«Everybody likes the idea of peace, there does not exist in this world a person who does not desire it. We all want peace, yet we still do not know how to find or realise it in our everyday life.

We complain that our world is too violent, and we blame this on our governments, on the multi-nationals who manipulate people, even on the United Nations which we say does not function as it should. We find infinite excuses to justify the violence in our world, but we never take personal responsibility for it. I, for example, live in a monastery, have a caring family, my life is ordinary, and I believe that I have nothing to do with the violence in the world. Many people think like this, even a thief tells himself: «the fact that I steal does not have any influence on the violence that occurs in the world».

But, thinking in this way is not right. From one point of view it is true that certain things happen over which we have no influence but, if we really want peace, we have to begin with ourselves first of all. Every argument we are involved in, every lie we tell, every small animal we kill, every object we steal, every word expressed through anger, each contribute to the violence of this world and create suffering for other people.

Many people believe that living in the city has now become intolerable as it is full of violence. We think by moving to quiet and isolated places, in the countryside, we will finally live in peace. But, after a short while, we find ourselves living with the same kind of violence inside the walls of our own home . It is this violence, so close, that brings us much greater suffering than that caused by external situations.

If we continue to talk with violence, fight, move with violence, even if we live in a community of pacifists, the same problems will reappear. If we want to live in a better way, we have to accept this, and stop putting the blame of our own negativities on others.

Almost all of us attribute the cause of our unhappiness to external things, for example we do not have enough money, because we want a newer and bigger car or clothes that we cannot afford. But even when we obtain the things we desire we are not happy. This demonstrates that the cause of our suffering is our permanant dissatisfaction.

One of the most beautiful things about Tibetan Buddhism is that one of the first things it teaches you is how to recognise this mechanism and to understand that only we ourselves are responsible for our life.

If we want to be happy we have to learn to be more satisfied and by being satisfied with what we have we will be more happy. We cause ourselves a lot of suffering when there is no need to suffer. Check for yourself if this is true or not!

Lama Michel (edited by Tiziana Ciasullo)