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| His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Ladakh, India, 2016, Tenzin Choejor, Dalai Lama Facebook. |
Wishing everyone a Happy Earth Day and Week.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama
His Holiness gave the following remarks about climate change in 2015. Watch it on YouTube:
This year on April 22 His Holiness the Dalai Lama shared the following message on dalailama.com:
"On this 50th anniversary of Earth Day, our planet is facing one of the greatest challenges to the health and well-being of its people. And yet, in the midst of this struggle, we are reminded of the value of compassion and mutual support. The current global pandemic threatens us all, without distinctions of race, culture or gender, and our response must be as one humanity, providing for the most essential needs of all.
"Whether we like it or not, we have been born on this earth as part of one great family. Rich or poor, educated or uneducated, belonging to one nation or another, ultimately each of us is just a human being like everyone else. Furthermore, we all have the same right to pursue happiness and avoid suffering. When we recognize that all beings are equal in this respect, we automatically feel empathy and closeness towards others. Out of this comes a genuine sense of universal responsibility: the wish to actively help others overcome their problems.
"Our mother earth is teaching us a lesson in universal responsibility. This blue planet is a delightful habitat. Its life is our life; its future, our future. Indeed, the earth acts like a mother to us all; as her children, we are dependent on her. In the face of the global problems we are going through it is important that we must all work together.
"I came to appreciate the importance of environmental concern only after escaping from Tibet in 1959, where we always considered the environment to be pure. Whenever we saw a stream of water, for instance, there was no worry about whether it was safe to drink. Sadly, the mere availability of clean drinking water is a major problem throughout the world today.
"We must ensure that the sick and the valiant health-care providers throughout the world have access to the fundamental necessities of clean water and proper sanitation to prevent the uncontrolled spread of disease. Hygiene is one of the bases of effective health care.
"Sustainable access to properly equipped and staffed health-care facilities will help us meet the challenges of the current pandemic that ravages our planet. It will also offer one of the strongest defenses against future public health crises. I understand that these are precisely the objectives set forth in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals that address challenges to global health.
"As we face this crisis together, it is imperative that we act in a spirit of solidarity and cooperation in order to provide for the pressing needs, particularly of our less fortunate brothers and sisters around the world. I hope and pray that in the days ahead, each of us will do all we can to create a happier and healthier world.
Dalai Lama
22 April 2020
(Message requested by Global Water 2020)"
"Whether we like it or not, we have been born on this earth as part of one great family. Rich or poor, educated or uneducated, belonging to one nation or another, ultimately each of us is just a human being like everyone else. Furthermore, we all have the same right to pursue happiness and avoid suffering. When we recognize that all beings are equal in this respect, we automatically feel empathy and closeness towards others. Out of this comes a genuine sense of universal responsibility: the wish to actively help others overcome their problems.
"Our mother earth is teaching us a lesson in universal responsibility. This blue planet is a delightful habitat. Its life is our life; its future, our future. Indeed, the earth acts like a mother to us all; as her children, we are dependent on her. In the face of the global problems we are going through it is important that we must all work together.
"I came to appreciate the importance of environmental concern only after escaping from Tibet in 1959, where we always considered the environment to be pure. Whenever we saw a stream of water, for instance, there was no worry about whether it was safe to drink. Sadly, the mere availability of clean drinking water is a major problem throughout the world today.
"We must ensure that the sick and the valiant health-care providers throughout the world have access to the fundamental necessities of clean water and proper sanitation to prevent the uncontrolled spread of disease. Hygiene is one of the bases of effective health care.
"Sustainable access to properly equipped and staffed health-care facilities will help us meet the challenges of the current pandemic that ravages our planet. It will also offer one of the strongest defenses against future public health crises. I understand that these are precisely the objectives set forth in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals that address challenges to global health.
"As we face this crisis together, it is imperative that we act in a spirit of solidarity and cooperation in order to provide for the pressing needs, particularly of our less fortunate brothers and sisters around the world. I hope and pray that in the days ahead, each of us will do all we can to create a happier and healthier world.
Dalai Lama
22 April 2020
(Message requested by Global Water 2020)"
His Holiness the Dalai Lama also recently shared his message "'Prayer Is Not Enough.' The Dalai Lama on Why We Need to Fight Coronavirus With Compassion." It was published in TIME magazine on April 14.
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| Earth Day Live. |
Watch Earth Day Live
Tune into the Earth Day Live event online from April 22-24. The schedule is full of activities running from 6AM - 6PM PT each day.
Register to Vote
If you are a US citizen then please make sure you are registered to vote in the Tuesday, November 3, 2020 US elections.
If you've moved, changed your name, or changed your political party affiliation since the last time you voted then you need to fill out a new voter registration form.
Visit HeadCount.org to get all of your election-related questions answered.
Watch Kōkua Festival 2020 - Live From Home
Jack Johnson performed during Earth Day Live on the morning of April 22. He is helping to organize another festival, Kōkua Festival 2020 - Live From Home, on Saturday, April 25th from 3:00-5:00 PM PT. Watch the fundraiser on the Jack Johnson Facebook page or Amazon Music's Twitch page.
Watch Jack's Earth Day message about the festival on YouTube:
Jack had the opportunity to play music for His Holiness the Dalai Lama at the University of Hawaii at Manoa on April 14, 2012.
Jack had the opportunity to play music for His Holiness the Dalai Lama at the University of Hawaii at Manoa on April 14, 2012.
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| His Holiness the Dalai Lama playfully patting Jack Johnson's knee, dalailama.com. |
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