-Report filed by the Department of Education-
Dharamshala: Geshe Yeshi Gyaltsen, Department of Education (DoE) mentor on Secular ethics successfully completed his six-month awareness talk-series on Secular ethics on 21 November 2018. During the period of six months, he visited 36 different places in India and Nepal, where he gave 146 talks to nearly 16500 Tibetan people including students, teachers, staff and public.
For the last several decades, His Holiness the Dalai Lama has been strongly and consistently advocating towards the promotion of human values as one of his three commitments for life. That precious seed now has been grown into a big tree as an academic subject titled as ‘Secular Ethics’. Thus, following His Holiness’ far-sighted vision and ways towards the creation of the peaceful world, many individuals, educational institutes, governments, etc. are taking initial steps towards the implementation of ‘Secular Ethics’ in schools, colleges and universities in particular, and the whole society at large. Hence the DoE of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) is one of them.
Along with other initiatives on Secular ethics, DoE has recently completed its 6-month awareness talk-series on Secular ethics to the students, teachers, staff and public in all the Tibetan schools and settlements in India and Nepal. The programme began in Dharamshala on 16 May 2018, coinciding the first day of Saka Dawa, the fourth month of Tibetan lunar calendar, and successfully ended in Mangalore on 21 November.
Talks mainly focused on related topics like; Importance and background of the Secular ethics, Its fundamental principles, qualities required to the teachers who impart Secular Ethics’ education, nature, value and strength of three basic elements of ethics: compassion, tolerance and interdependence, Five basic needs to lead a meaningful life, Compassion & justice, and Importance of appropriate parenting, etc.
The programme received an overwhelming response from the audience, who have unanimously requested the speaker as well as DoE to conduct such talks on a frequent basis for a longer period of time in the future.
The programme was funded by Fonds De Dotation Mon Kontan Ou, France and Deichoe Frasi Charitable Trust, United Kingdom