DHARAMSHALA: Tibetan spiritual leader, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, has said many Chinese told him they support his visits to Japan.
Addressing a press conference in Japan on the second day of his visit, he said he was little bit concerned about his planned visit to Japan in view of the recent anti-Japanese movement in China.
But he said he has been annually visiting Japan since many years as he receives so many invitations. “I think my visit is quite useful for the Buddhist community here and it is also my duty to share my knowledge and experiences with the Japanese people,” he added.
He further said, during his annual visits to Hunter college in the US, including this year, he occassionally met Chinese students and professors, and asked them what they think of his planned visit to Japan. “All the members of the audience, including many Chinese, support my visit to Japan,” he added.
He underlined that his primary aim in visiting Japan was to fulfil his commitment to create a happier world.
“My number one commitment is on the level of I being one of the 7 billion human beings. The future of humanity is in everybody’s interest. Everybody’s future depend on humanity. As a share of my own responsibility to humanity, I share with people, particularly younger generation, that the ultimate source of happier world is within ourselves – our mental attitude. I always make it clear that the ultimate source of happy life is not money or material facilities, but inner human values like warmheartedness,” he said.
Responding to a query on the deteriorating relations between Japan and China, His Holiness said: “China needs Japan, Japan needs China, as East needs West and West needs East. This is today’s reality. So people, including leaders, should think in a more holistic way to face the reality, rather than make small disagreements and vested interests affect better relations.”
He attributed the outburst of anger among people in such a dispute to the existing education system.
“The people, including leaders, were grown up in an education system which is lacking in giving adequate emphasis on moral principles. Secondly, the education system in different countries emphasises, perhaps in an extreme way, nationalism. Such education system instead of developing more holistic and realistic concept, creates more biased thinking, too much emotions. For example, now in China too much emphasis on nationalism. Of course, the Chinese people must love their nation and culture, but having extreme views that Chinese nation is the best on this planet is not good. We can’t blame the present generation; their education puts too much emphasis on their immediate interests,”he added.
His Holiness also said that only democracy can bring a harmonious and stable society in China. The gap between the rich and poor must be reduced and for that to happen, there needs to be an independent judiciary, free press and rule of law which only democracy can provide, he added.
In the name of harmony, the Chinese government is using secrecy, bullying and oppression towards its own people. That’s why China’s internal security budget is larger than its defence budget. So it clearly shows that China’s biggest enemy is within China itself, he said.
Earlier in the morning, His Holiness addressed a group of Korean Buddhists.
His Holiness will take part in two-day discussion with Japanese scientists on Science, Technology and Buddhism tomorrow at Tokyo on Tuesday.
