Forty thousand people crowded together on Central Park's East Meadow on Sunday, August 15th, to hear the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, offer a few words of wisdom. His larger message was one of compassion and of total nonviolence, but the real focus of his speech was the individual. What is important is the development of inner peace.
Compassion is a sense of caring, thinking about others' welfare.
This is linked to inner strength. Through constant effort, we can change our mental perception, our mental attitude, and that makes the difference in our life. He emphasized that every human being has the same potential to do good in the world. The difference is the awareness of one's own potential. Some people think the Dalai Lama is different.