His Holiness the Dalai Lama

While it is certainly true that all the religious traditions around the world do emphasis love and compassion, this is equally true in Buddhism. But Buddhism does has a special quality here too, really backing these up with strong reasoning. For example, the whole understanding of origination is a great support for the cultivation of loving kindness and compassion. While all the religious traditions of the world give strong emphasis on living a virtuous life, Buddhism has an extraordinary quality of showing such strong reasons why this is meaningful, why this is realistic, why this is worthwhile to do.

So, it is all the more important for school children to be introduced to these fundamentals of Buddhism early on. When they learn this, very early, this understanding will benefit them for the rest of their lives.

In the case of Mongolia and Tibet, our own native religious heritage is Buddhist. We are followers of the Buddhas. It is our religious tradition in which we have been raised by our own parents. So, it is important that we preserve our own native religious heritage. Now, we know from our own experience in the past years, that there has been great technological progress, material progress and prosperity. But there has also been an enormous amount of violence, of oppression, of injustice.

And so our task, is to use, or to apply Buddhist teachings, to do our best to dispel and to calm such violence, such injustice. To cultivate it in all those around us, a great sense of compassion, of tolerance, of gentleness as we engage with each other.

Now, we are at the dawn of the 21st century, and in this historical moment, Buddhism is poised to bring about a great deal of benefit to the world. It has a great deal to offer. For example, a number of scientists have made the following comment to me, that generally speaking, there's a high degree of incompatibility between scientific knowledge and religious faith, or religious assertions and beliefs. So, this has been a problem.There is tension.

However, these scientists tell me, that when we look at to the future, Buddhism and science could really work together, that they could be quite compatible. As far as my own personal experiences are concerned, I have had a number of encounters with scientists, especially physicists working in the field of quantum mechanics and particle physics. And when I hear the presentations they give about the actual nature of quantum phenomena, the elementary particles that constitute the physical universe, I see that these presentations are quite compatible with the central tenet of cittamatra, or 'mind only system', which refutes the existence of independent or independently existing external objects or physical world. Alternately, moreover these same theories coming out of quantum mechanics and basic particle physics, elementary particle physics can also be seen as compatible with the central assertions of Mādhyamika philosophy which refutes the inherent existence of all phenomena. So, it appears to me, that there could be in the future a great deal of fruitful collaboration between Buddhism and science.

Bearing this in mind, especially for those of us raised in Buddhist traditions, it is really our responsibility to study well, and to practice, to really learn Buddhism well, because this will be of exceptional benefit to future generations. Speaking specifically, for the situation and the people in Mongolia, over the past decades, of course, there has been a great deal of degeneration of Buddhism in Mongolia. And so for this reason, it's even more important for the people of Mongolia to really study and learn Buddhism well. This is the responsibility.