The Book of Joy

your heart, because you have, in fact, wiped the tears from the eyes of
another.
“Why now?” he continued, addressing the second part of the question.
“I think that there is so much that is hurting. You almost want not to read
the newspapers or watch television when, if you are going to watch
television, you will see the beheading of someone’s child. When you see
the number of refugees, mothers running away from one source of
violence and pulling children behind them. Even when you live
comfortably it clutches at your heartstrings. It’s very . . . it’s very
distressing. Particularly when we think that during the time of our
struggle against apartheid, our people were refugees and exiled and were
welcomed in African countries that were a great deal less well off than
South Africa is. You have to be quite careless not to be sad. We look like
we are hell-bent on competing to show who will be the most exquisitely
cruel. I think God wants us to be joyful at every time, but right now, I
think God is crying quite a lot.” The Archbishop was gesturing to the
Dalai Lama. “It’s your turn now.”
“This is our last session, so perhaps I will state it this way. I am one
human being born in Amdo province in northeast Tibet in a very, very
small village in 1935. So, at that time, the Sino-Japanese conflict was
about to start. Soon after the Second World War began. Then the Korean
War. Then the Vietnam War. Because of these wars, there was immense
violence. At those times the human mind, or at least those who were
responsible for going to war, believed that using force was the best
method for solving disagreement.
“During the Second World War, for example, when a nation declared
war on another, the citizens of the country proudly joined the war effort
without the slightest question. But since the Vietnam War our way of
thinking has changed. More and more people now publicly oppose war;
we saw this opposition to war in Kosovo, in Iraq. Many people were
against these wars and, from Australia to America, people openly
protested against these wars. This is truly a hopeful sign.
“I think as long as we human beings remain here, there will always be
some limited violence, as there is with all animals. But serious violence,