From Time Magazine's 10 Questions. His Holiness has a new book out, Toward a True Kinship of Faiths. The Dalai Lama will now take your questions ("10 Questions." 4)*
Excerpt:
Q: How can we teach our children not to be angry? - Robyn Rice, Grand Junction, COLO.
A: "Children always look to their parents. Parents should be more calm. You can teach children that you face a lot of problems but you must react to those problems with a calm mind and reason. I have always had this view about the modern education system: we pay attention to brain development, but the development of warmheartedness we take for granted." - Dalai Lama
* "10 Questions." Time Magazine. 14 June 2010: 4-4
The Dalai Lama will be the first to tell you that anger is normal. It is a part of being human. But at some point you have to decide what kind of person you want to be.
ReplyDeleteIt's high-time we take accountability for ourselves and find respect for children. As Sondheim so famously wrote...careful the things you say, children will listen!
So true and what a great reference! The lyrics capture perfectly the fact that no matter how children demonstrate their knowledge, they are still paying attention and making decisions based on our example. If I speak to any child, I feel immediately a sense of a complete and whole person, who of course knows very little about the grand picture of selfhood waiting for him or her in that long journey. But yet, the PERSON is there, even if it has yet to manifest its qualities. Could that be what we identify as a soul?
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