Ethics for the New Millennium

Ethics for the New Millennium (1999), a book of philosophy by the fourteenth and current Dalai Lama (Tenzin Gyatso) and co-written by Dr. Howard Cutler, MD, seeks to apply the lessons of Tibetan Buddhism in hope of lessening the collective pain and suffering of the modern world. As opposed to Catholicism, the Dalai Lama teaches that humans are born into goodness, not original sin, and life should be about returning to that state of goodness if we have strayed.

In the introduction, the Dalai Lama sets out what he sees as the basic problems facing modern society. For example, our reliance on machines has made us de-emphasize personal relationships in our lives. As a result, we feel a sense of isolation and loneliness that older, community-based societies—particularly agrarian societies—have never before felt. Moreover, our need to continually improve our social or economic status creates unneeded anxieties. Science has replaced religion for many individuals. The immediate impact of this, he asserts, is that humanity has become obsessed with absolutes defined by the material world, as opposed to the spiritual world. It is no wonder that a strong sense of ethics has been lost on a huge number of modern humans.

However, the loss of religion, the Dalai Lama asserts, cannot be fixed with simply more religion. Here, he is careful to define religion as something distinct from spirituality. While religion is aimed at encouraging good works through the promise of salvation, spirituality is focused on the singular virtues that compel us to do good works, such as love and compassion and patience. He also discusses the metrics we should use in evaluating our ethical decisions. We must consider the impact our deeds will have on others, our intentions, the nature of the act itself, and our motivation. At first glance, the difference between "intention" and "motivation" may appear to some readers a matter of semantics. However, he distinguishes the two. Intention is something we are fully aware of in our consciousness. Motivation is unconscious or involuntary, and representative of something deep and mysterious in our souls.



Later on, the Dalai Lama discusses how ethics relate to happiness. Here, he sets out another duality: ethical acts and spiritual acts. Ethical acts are merely those that cause no harm to others. On the other hand, spiritual acts are those done with the intention of increasing someone else's happiness. We should be mindful to avoid acts that are unethical of course, but that is not enough to achieve happiness. Rather, it is crucial to seek out opportunities to carry out spiritual acts. Increasing the happiness of others, as opposed to merely reducing harm to others, is the surest path to our happiness, he says.

As the book progresses, the Dalai Lama continues to dig into the various ways we can accomplish these spiritual acts. He talks about compassion; the great thing about compassion is that it has no limits. It is an act that requires no special commitment of time or resources, and therefore, it can be spread to every single human being on earth, if we so choose. The next step, however, is a bit harder: achieving equanimity. According to the Dalai Lama’s definition, equanimity is the ability to extend the kind of intimacy we normally reserve for friends and family to the rest of the world. He admits that it is possible to become "burned out" or disengaged when trying to behave with equanimity toward all living creatures. If this happens, there is no shame in taking a break in order to quietly reflect and recharge our batteries, as it were.

Finally, the Dalai Lama points out that we must keep in mind that compassion, intimacy, and equanimity do not require us to experience the suffering of others with the same intensity we would experience our own suffering. If this were true, the experience of all that suffering would be too much to bear. Rather, we must recognize the qualitative difference between personal suffering and others' suffering, without minimizing how it must feel for that particular person.



While Ethics for the New Millennium offers little new material for those familiar with Tibetan Buddhism, it is a very valuable and readable primer for newcomers to the spiritual philosophy.