His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s New Year Message for World
“All of us are travellers through the journey of time, including myself. We travel through time, months, weeks, day and so on. Today is 2018. The important thing is when you look back at beginning of 2019 to 2018, how would you think about the year that you have spent? Would you have a sense of contentment saying that I have lived that year well, I have served the purpose of that year or would you be looking back with a sense of regret for all the troubles that you have caused. So this is why it is important that when we begin the new year and look forward, we should project our intentions ahead so that we make this year a meaningful one. So that when we turn back to look at it, we can live our life with a sense of happiness and joy.
In fact, if an individual were to make conscious intention to live his or her life with sense of purpose, live it in a good way, the ripple effect of that really spreads. First from individual to family, then to the community, to friends and neighbours and so on. This is how society gets changed and affected. Otherwise, when we talk about the transformation of society, the transformation really has to start from an individual, from inside to outward. Otherwise, we would be expecting some kind of transformation coming from outside, from above. That is unrealistic.”
His Holiness the Dalai Lama delivered the New Year’s advice during his address at the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies’ 50th Anniversary in Sarnath, Varanasi, India on 1 January 2018.