Daniel Goleman: The Force for Good

When you turn on the evening news, it’s easy to get depressed. All over the world there are wars, conflicts and overwhelming human misery. Is this really the best we can do?

According to the Dalai Lama, many of the world’s problems stem from a lack of compassion and moral responsibility; we care more about money than about each other. So how do we get out of this mess?

As these blinks will show you, when we learn to replace our own negative emotions with compassion and love, we become more dedicated to the well-being of everyone around us. If we take care to listen to both science and religion, and what they can teach us about how to live our lives, we can truly become a force for good.

In these blinks, you’ll learn the difference between good and bad selfishness;why we need a new, more compassionate economic system; and what the Dalai Lama does at 5:30 in the morning every day

A force for good will lead us toward compassionate moral responsibility Every day at 5.30 a.m., the Dalai Lama wakes up bright and early to listen to the BBC news while he eats his breakfast. While this might not be the morning routine you imagined for the Dalai Lama, he maintains that through this daily ritual, he’s come upon a great revelation.

Listening to the news reveals how full of violence, cruelty and tragedy our world really is. But why? The Dalai Lama believes it actually comes down to one single deficiency: a lack of compassionate moral responsibility. Today, we act out of self-interest and disregard our moral obligations to others.

Seems quite grim, doesn’t it? But look at this way: if humans have the power to wreak so much damage and destruction, then we might also have the power to exert an equivalent positive impact. This is what the Dalai Lama calls a force for good .

A force for good begins with individuals, and from within them. By creating an inner shift that diminishes our negative emotions and strengthens our capacity to act morally, we become better able to overcome impulsive reactions such as rage, frustration and hopelessness. This shift will also see us become more compassionate to those around us, and to our shared planet.

Unlike the Dalai Lama, not all of us are able to commit five hours a day to inner practices such as meditation — but we can still take some small steps. The Dalai Lama has fashioned a plan that each individual can follow. It begins with looking inward and managing our own minds and hearts. This will help us look out at our world and see the places where we can do good.

Even the Dalai Lama had a short temper once upon a time. Of course, he learned to master his emotions, and he did so with a few techniques that are simpler than you’d expect. One important technique entails taking a step back when tempted to act on your feelings and considering the consequences of your choices.

In March 2008, the Chinese army shot at demonstrators and arrested many Tibetan protesters, particularly monks, during a series of protests in Lhasa and other cities. How did the Dalai Lama react? Of course, hearing such news would have filled him with rage. Nevertheless, the Dalai Lama chose to stay calm.

He visualized the Chinese officials and replaced their negative feelings with his love, compassion and forgiveness. Having reasoned that the consequence of acting out of anger would only be further damage, he chose instead to control his feelings.

But remember: controlling your feelings is not the same as suppressing them altogether. Bottling up negative emotions can lead to outbursts that are impossible to control. When dealing with powerful emotions, it’s best to stay mindful.

We’re better off recognizing negative emotions when we experience them, and asking whether the emotions we feel are in proportion to the situation or whether they’re familiar. By understanding our negative emotions, we’re better equipped to channel them into positive actions.

Compassion and awareness go hand in hand. Now that we’ve taken a closer look at emotional awareness, it’s time to delve into compassion, starting with where the notion comes from in the first place.

In the Dalai Lama’s view of the concept, compassion is deep in our nature and does not come from religion. Think about it: even dogs and cats can be compassionate and altruistic to some extent. So why should compassion be bound up in religious institutions and their traditions?

Compassion is superior to and separate from religion. In fact, it is rooted in our biological makeup. Parents’ instinctive care for their young, who would otherwise die, is one sign of a biological predisposition for caring and compassion.

Moreover, our bodies have built-in needs for positive emotions such as love, joy and playfulness. These experiences help to boost our immune strength and lower the risk of heart disease. But above all, we’re psychologically predisposed to seek comfort in affection, compassion and a sense of belonging within a group.

Compassion puts our attention on something bigger than our petty concerns. This larger goal energizes us in turn. Having explored where compassion comes from and why we need it, let’s investigate how it manifests itself in our world. Find out more in the next blink!

The Dalai Lama’s form of compassion isn’t the wishy-washy kind that is confined to holidays or Sunday school. Rather, he calls for moral responsibility in all spheres of public life, which includes having a profound distaste for injustice, as well as taking initiative to expose and reform corrupt systems.

Three principles exemplify such compassion in action: fairness, transparency and accountability. By treating everyone equally, remaining open and honest, and taking responsibility for our mistakes, we can create a powerful form of compassion to drive our actions.

Compassion in action doesn’t just mean relieving suffering, but also getting engaged in rectifying wrongs by actively opposing injustice or protecting people’s rights.

Moreover, the Dalai Lama encourages us to learn how we can reduce our destructive emotions. Of course, feelings such as anger and frustration can also be constructive, functioning as drivers of positive action.

For example, the Dalai Lama once met a social worker whose group had been given too many cases, making it impossible for them to help any of the individuals. The social worker became morally outraged, and it was with this anger that he motivated his team to protest and successfully get their workload reduced.

However, it doesn’t take much for anger to go from constructive to destructive. One way to ensure we use frustration to drive positive actions is by maintaining basic compassion towards a person that we take issue with.

It’s clear that compassion is a recurring theme here. In the next blink, we’ll explore another situation where compassion plays a central role: the divide between science and religion.

Does it surprise you that the Dalai Lama routinely meets Nobel Prize-winning scientists, discussing intricate theories with the likes of Bob Livingston, David Bohm, Wolf Singer and Paul Ekman? Well, it shouldn’t. The Dalai Lama acknowledges the strength of both science and religion, and we should too!