Desmond and the Dalai
The proof of Ubuntu-
Some years ago, I was privileged to attend a series of talks in Reno gifted through the Tobacco Millennial Scholarships. One of the speakers was the late, great Archbishop Desmond Tutu. He began his talk with thanking everyone in the audience for helping South Africa end Apartheid. His reason for doing that stems from the concept of Ubuntu – A South African word meaning oneness or more accurately “ I am a person only through other persons.” Whether you protested or supported Apartheid, Desmond felt that all persons contribute through their thinking or their actions or their feelings – and that was the secret sauce he applied to the reconciliation process post Apartheid and the healing agent for both sides.
We can only become fully human through other humans…we learn from others, we experience life through others and no matter how hard we try to isolate (or are forced to) – it really cannot be done. As John Donne so eloquently stated…”No Man or woman is an island.”
Oneness is probably one of those spiritual concepts that boggles the mind – yet it is the essential ingredient in creating a new and more just world – that experiences forgiveness and wholeness in everyone. To assist with grasping the meaning – you could say we all come from the same source. The same intelligence that demonstrates stars and galaxies is the stuff of each of us…so though we appear in different forms and from different places – we still have the same substance as our beginnings.
For South Africa it was coming to terms with whether you were white or black you were stuck in a paradigm that could only be ended with both healing together.
As the years unfolded, Desmond Tutu and The Dalai Lama became deep friends…they obviously hailed from different countries and more importantly for their missions in life; from vastly different spiritual teachings. They wrote a book together called The Book of Joy which testifies to their deep wisdom and friendship, and is proof positive of a concept in action…in this case Ubuntu. Everyone can cross the same bridge these spiritual giants took on – and gave us all a model for operating from a new premise. We are all one – we will all need to transform together.
Watch this short clip of highlights of how they felt about each other as they show us no difference is real. Only Love and Oneness. Desmond and the Dalai.
