Attachment!

Attachment is when you exaggerate the positive qualities of something, like the happiness you expect to feel when you get your hands on those new shoes! Attachment is also when you exaggerate the aversion to something unwanted, such as "life will be so much better if I could only get rid of these headaches!" In either case, you're not seeing these things as they really are.

Moral Disarmament!

At the public talk in Melbourne over the Long Weekend with His Holiness the Dalai Lama and 5,000 of our closest friends! We need a secular moral ethics based on affection and respect, he said. There is too much emphasis on "we/they" when the new reality is that all the world is part of "me". He expressed the hope and desire that we could build the latter part of the 21st Century into a "happy Century", but only if we practice "moral disarmament" and introduce ethics free of religion.

Many Perspectives!

I was fascinated watching Professor Anatol Lieven respond to a question at the Lowy Institute for International Policy lunch yesterday: "Should we be concerned about Pakistan?" I could actually see the "ripple" of multiple perspectives play across his face as he struggled with historical, political, strategic, geographic, and ethnic considerations. After what seemed a full minute his reply was distilled into a simple "Yes!"

The wisest people I know find it difficult to contemplate issues in simple black and white terms. Life is inherently complex and unpredictable. Anyone who tells you otherwise is probably trying to sell you something!