The old ‘60s phrase “give peace a chance” may sound “mushy” and “feel good” to some, but it appears to be one of the easiest methods known to reduce violence in the world.  A variation of this theme has been echoed by the Dalai Lama, who has been touring the country again. He was in Los Angeles recently talking with troubled youths, among other groups.  Winner of a Nobel Peace Prize, he is perhaps the ultimate in Buddhist compassion and love.  He lives in exile, traveling around the world trying to bring peace to his Tibetan land in their support for independence from five decades of Chinese rule.  Seems the Chinese do not like peaceful men.  Not that the United States loves peace, either.  Ever heard of a Department of Peace?  We use to have a War Department, which is now called, ironically, the Department of Defense (the irony is that this department more often engages in war, both directly and indirectly). 

So why am I writing about the Dalai Lama?  Because if we took seriously at his message (and the message of over 2000 years of Zen Buddhism and other religious teachings) we could easily end the violence both here and abroad, between men and women, between men and men, between  gangs, and between rival nations.  In attendance at one of the Dalai Lama’s talks were 22 youths from two Los Angeles County probation camps and around 50 more from an organization called We Care for Youth.  In a rare moment a troubled teenage girl asked His Holiness the following question: “How can I stay out of trouble in this cruel world?”  He gave her a hug and uttered words that she says she’ll never forget: “You don’t need fists to fight.  You just need wisdom.”  A story in the Los Angeles Times quoted the girl as saying that “He told me to find self-confidence in my heart and myself.  I had tears in my eyes.  My heart was beating, like, wild.  He just touches you in your heart.”  Later he told the audience “You are your own light.  Look into your own self.”

The Dalai Lama points us in a direction that we need to go in order to end the violence that is all around us.  We read about it every day in local newspapers, see it on the nightly news, watch countless movies with violence as the main theme, support with our taxes a constantly growing war machine (both nationally in terms of the armed forces and locally in terms of the police).  And how often do we applaud the victors as they wipe out the “enemy”?  How often do we seek vengeance against someone who has killed another, never thinking of the utter hypocrisy of claiming to be against violence, yet eagerly awaiting the next execution of a condemned man? And we vote for candidates who espouse a law and order rhetoric and support our troops in their foreign conquests (and domestic conquests too, as in the war on drugs, war on gangs, etc.).  And we often secretly wish to commit violence ourselves, both against our perceived enemies (the boss at work, a co-worker, someone who has “dissed” us) and our own loved ones - our spouses, our children, our parents. And who are we to condemn violence here (as in recent school-yard shootings), when we support violence our military commits against foreign nations?  I recall the hypocrisy of President Clinton in the aftermath of the shootings at Columbine last year.  He told the youths of the nation not to solve their problems with violence.  The very next day he ordered the bombing of Yugoslavia.

And we wonder why we have the highest rate of violence among all democratic societies, a rate that compares only with totalitarian dictatorships?  I am convinced that some very fundamental changes need to be made in the way we live and think before we see any significant decrease in these problems.