A Model for Spiritual Instruction

Religions and, for that matter, secular self-improvement movements are vulnerable to being corrupted by self-seeking profiteering huckstering promoters pitching ways in which you can get ahead, feel good, and find success by following their instructions, donating to their enterprises, and enriching their promoters. The Dalai Lama is of a rarer sort. He doesn’t purport to align himself with some divine truth, catechism, sacred text, or mystical knowledge. Thus, he wrote recently, “What we need today are universal values based not on faith but on scientific findings, common experience and common sense.” How refreshing. How unpretentious. How sensible.