Amidst global violence and suffering, the Dalai Lama’s teachings offer a path to navigate cruelty without succumbing to it. He emphasises compassion, understanding interdependence, and recognising the shared human experience of pain. By opposing injustice without mirroring it and cultivating inner peace, we resist dehumanisation and foster a more compassionate world, even in the face of overwhelming violence.

-By Rajiv Mehrotra, Times of India 

It is impossible to turn away. Violence in Ukraine and genocide in Gaza are coarsening our sensibilities, continue to dull our capacity for shock, and steadily erode our sense of agency.

How do we carry the weight of such pain? How do we face cruelty without being broken by it? I remember my first visit to Dharamshala in 1983, where the Dalai Lama has lived in exile for more than six decades. What moved me most were the prayer mats laid out by the monks. Embroidered in Tibetan, they read: “Oray for the Chinese.”Their daily prayers concluded with a simple wish: “May the veils of ignorance rise from the Chinese so that they may not suffer the consequences of their actions.”

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