A Call for Revolution: A Vision for the Future

By Dalai Lama and Sofia Stril-Rever

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A Landmark Message from His Holiness the Dalai Lama: Are we ready to hear it? Are we ready to act?

I call on you to confront the challenges of our era by rising up and embarking upon a revolution that has no precedent in human history

This eloquent, urgent manifesto is possibly the most important message the Dalai Lama can give us about the future of our world. It’s his rallying cry, full of solutions for our chaotic, aggressive, divided times: no less than A CALL FOR REVOLUTION.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Nov 13, 2018
• ISBN: 9780062866479

Dalai Lama

His Holiness the Dalai Lama is the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people, a Nobel Peace Prize recipient, and a beacon of inspiration for Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike. He has persistently reached out across religious and political lines and has engaged in dialogue with scientists in his mission to advance peace and understanding in the world. In doing so, he embodies his motto: “My religion is kindness.”  

Book preview

Contents

Cover

Title Page

1. I Believe in You

The European Union, a Model for World Peace

Berlin, November 1989: Youth, Peace and Democracy

Topple the Remaining Walls of Shame

War, a Complete Anachronism

2. Rebels for Peace

Be the Solution-Finding Generation

I Have Adopted the Motto ‘Freedom, Equality, Fraternity’

The Revolutions of the Past Have Not Transformed the Human Spirit

3. Bring on the Revolution of Compassion

Now Is the Time for Compassion

I Have a Dream: Women Will Become National Leaders

Acknowledging the Failure of All Religions

Collective Intelligence and Compassion

Egotism Is Against Nature

4. What Can You Do for the World?

Practise Compassion like an Olympian

A Universal Responsibility

Urgency Alert!

5. The World of Compassion Exists

Epilogue by Sofia Stril-Rever

The Dalai Lama’s Revolution

To Exist Is to Coexist

The Revolution of Compassion Has Dawned

The Charter of Universal Responsibility

End Notes

About the Authors

Copyright

About the Publisher

1

I Believe in You

My beloved brothers and sisters, my dear young friends.

You, the youth of today, are the generation born at the beginning of the third millennium. Our century is not yet twenty years old; it is still young, like you. The world is ageing at the same pace as you, and it will be what you make of it.

I am appealing to you having observed you keenly for some time. I have enormous faith in your generation. For several years I have organised meetings with you, both in India and on my travels to Europe, the United States, Canada, Australia and Japan. In the course of multiple exchanges with young people from all over the world I have grown increasingly convinced that your generation has the capability to transform this dawning century into an era of peace and dialogue. You have the means of reconciling our fractured humanity both with itself and with the natural world.

Nonetheless, the potential for renewal exemplified by your generation is encircled by the shadows of the old world: a dark chaos of pain and tears. You must stand up to the wilful opposition to knowledge that is at large today, which is fraught with danger, where hatred, selfishness, violence, greed and fanaticism are threatening the very future of life on earth. I know that you have the persistence and strength to take on the future, and that you will succeed in drawing a line under the willed ignorance that you have inherited.

My young friends, you are my hope for humanity. I want to state it loudly and clearly so that you hear and respond to my message. I am confident in the future, for you have the capacity to lead humanity towards a renewed form of fraternity, justice and solidarity.

I am addressing you with the knowledge I have acquired through experience. I am eighty-two years old. At the age of sixteen,¹ on 17 November 1950, I lost my freedom, when I took my seat on the golden throne in Lhasa and accepted supreme authority, both secular and religious, over Tibet. At the age of twenty-five, in March 1959, I lost my country after it was forcibly annexed by the People’s Republic of China. I was born in 1935, and have lived through many of the horrors of the twentieth century, the century that experienced the worst bloodshed in human history. However extraordinary human intelligence is, instead of serving, cherishing and protecting life, it has too often turned its ingenuity to destruction, even harnessing the force from which the sun draws its power. You were born into a world in which arsenals of atomic weapons have the capacity to destroy the planet dozens of times over.

Your grandparents and parents lived through two world wars and multiple conflicts that wrought bloody havoc on our world, and caused the deaths of 231 million people

Reviews for A Call for Revolution

[reluctanttechie · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

An impassioned plea for change, that will make you squirm as it promotes a new set of thoughts and actions for the future. I read it in one sitting. I have nominated this book for a general book discussion at my Unitarian Universalist congregation, but I am not sure I will urge the group to choose it. Certainly, it offers much food for tough thought.