Three days in a row, biologists, scientists, economists, women committed for peace in the world, and religious people from all sides, met in Bruxelles with his Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. Their aim was to present the current situation for our planet and reflect together about what can practically be done to move towards harmony in a mindful way.
ACTION, WOMEN, ART, PEACE, CHILDREN
– We can all contribute and take action ! Each one of our act, for each one of us, contributes in building up a global commitment. This starts with what we consume and with how we consider our human kinds. The butterfly effect with 7 billion motivated people can make a difference.
– Women have the exceptional power to care in a practical way. Women have the capacity to act on what 
tomorrow will look like. Consider Jody Williams, Peace Nobel price, in her fight against anti-personnel landmines, or any women in her kitchen where we have the power to care for animals by not putting them in our pans and ovens, or every day education of our children and grand-children, and many other situations. His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama is deeply convinced about the vastness of women qualities, and his mother remains his absolute master in compassion training.
– Open to communication thru arts. Music, plastic arts, poetry and so forth are powerful means to access serenity. As an example, Maria Joao Pires, piano performer, contributed this momentum during this three-day dialog.
– Peace is 10 times cheaper than war, why not go for it ? The Australian Institute for Economics & Peace came up with this number in a Plan of Action for Peace developed among others by Silla Elworthy. This is even more true now since nuclear weapons are useless against global warming and terrorism, according to experts.
– Let our children marvel about nature and go in the open. Pauline Tangiora, a Maori member of the indigenous grandmothers Council, brought a lot of emotion in the audience simply by inviting us to let our children climb up trees – real trees, not artificial ones! – walk into forests, and listen to singing birds.
RESPECT, COMPASSION, LISTENING, TRUST, HAPPINESS
– Respect living organisms to fully live in interdependency. This is a call for accepting our differences and our responsibility with regard to our environment and to all animals, as sensible beings.
– Compassion is something to be cultivated, for the benefit of all, including ourselves. Tania Singer’s research team demonstrated that we can build up compassion capacities with secular meditations practices, and that we all deeply benefit from these. Why not do it ?!
– Be ready for unconditional listening, receiving and loving. All religions call unanimously for such aim, and even atheists know that altruism and mutual respect leads to serenity.
– Ban fears and power in a working environment built on trust, love and compassion. Pyramidal hierarchies are obsolete and induce massive stress. A few enterprises lead the way to new interaction models as a way to lead to a more lively and meaningful workplace.
– Happiness is an achievable goal ; it is our choice to change ! Smiling more often is a first step accessible to all human being.
« Compassion is something to be cultivated for the benefit of all, including ourselves »
Tania Singer, neuro-scientist, co-organizer of Power and Care
The upcoming century will be built on compassion; this is necessary not superfluous, concluded Tania Singer, neuroscientist and co-chair of the event. Let us not consider power versus care, but rather let us discover and cultivate the power of care ! There is no reason to ponder and hesitate; it is time for each of us to act. His Holiness invited the media to stop looking only at bad news and rather to encourage their readers and citizens to incarnate and implement the changes they wish to see happen. This article is my small contribution in this direction. I hereby express all my gratitude to his Holiness for his personal commitment in raising our awareness.
By Anne-Claire Gagnon, Mid&Flandres
Translated by Jean-Philippe Jacques
Photos : © Olivier Adam
¹The Power and Care Conference was organized by the European Mind & Life Institute in Brussels from Septembrer 9 to 11, 2016. Recordings are available on http://dalailama.com/mindlife-brussels and DVDs can be purchased thru office@mindandlife-europe.org. Proceedings to be published in the spring of 2017.