The Humanity Project

I want to begin this week’s blog by wishing a very Happy Birthday from everybody at the Humanity Project to one of the world’s genuine moral leaders: the Dalai Lama. His Holiness turned 76 this week and we all wish him continued good health. As I considered his life, I realized that each of us can learn something from this man beyond the obvious lessons. Yes, he speaks about peace, compassion, forgiveness. Certainly there’s no question that the world needs to hear these concepts repeated and explained as often as possible. But by all accounts, he is a genuine person who lives out the ideas that he preaches to others. He lives a spiritual life — and by that I mean a life that includes both deep reflection and constructive action, all aimed at helping humanity. I’m not talking about religion in any way, shape or form when I refer to a “spiritual life.” I’m talking about living in ways that elevate us as individuals. I was fortunate enough to have been around the Dalai Lama about a year and a half ago, hearing him speak to large audiences and also attending a press conference with him and perhaps 30 writers. I was impressed by his evident sincerity and the passion he brings to his message. Perhaps even more, I felt inspired to be around a person who devotes their waking hours to profound human values. I believe that every human being benefits by living a spiritual life in this same sense, incorporating daily thought and effort focused on helping people. So I guess that I’m simply suggesting here that, as we celebrate the Dalai Lama’s birthday, we try to learn from his lifestyle as well as from his words. That doesn’t mean we should neglect our everyday duties and responsibilities and needs and wants. It just means that we may get more out of our lives if we find ways to care about others as we go through each day. That’s what we believe at the Humanity Project — and it’s what our original ideas about shared value are all about. Helping others as we help ourselves … win-win. Email us if you’d like to find out more. Oh, and eat a piece of cake for the Dalai Lama while you’re at it.

Tags: Dalai Lama, helping others, human values, Humanity Project, philosophy, positive psychology, psychology, shared value, teaching human values, The Humanity Project

This entry was posted by Bob Knotts on Saturday, July 9th, 2011 at 8:54 am and is filed under Our Programs, Sharing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.