Ethics For The New Millennium
By His Holiness the Dalai Lama
Riverhead Books, $24.95
ISBN 1573220256

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Heads up! You haven't come across a book like this for 40 years. Or at least from whenever it was that Western culture decided to turn cynical, gloomy, and expect nothing but the worst from everyone and everything.

Just reading the words of the Dalai Lama is as refreshing as rain after a drought. The exiled leader of Tibetan Buddhism believes, without irony or reservation, that "human nature is basically disposed towards love and compassion." Whether you entirely agree with the thesis or not, what a treat it is to cool off, after decades of overheated angst and misanthropy, in this pleasant shower of benevolent advice and good sense.

Working without statistics, and apt to annoy those who enjoy finding life more complex, the Dalai Lama takes a hard look at late-20th-century society and finds "psychological and emotional suffering" both in the West and, "as affluence has increased," in the East as well. Believing that "all sentient beings" share two fundamental goals in life, "to be happy and to avoid suffering," he calls for a "spiritual revolution" in which ethical conduct strengthens the love and compassion which, he holds, are ultimately the only fulfilling source of happiness for human beings. Disciplining negative, or "afflictive" emotions, and cultivating positive qualities, he argues, will encourage personal tranquillity and help support universal change in such areas as scientific, environmental, and military aggression. Eventually it will bring about the inner peace which defines human happiness for oneself, and helps lessen suffering for others. Surprisingly, the Dalai Lama does not insist on religion's role in establishing an ethical world. Any one of the major religions, he allows, is the best way to go for support, but, as long as love and compassion are the hallmarks of a lifestyle, religion is not absolutely necessary. He suggests a world parliament of religions to "avoid the extremes of religious bigotry on the one hand, and the urge towards unnecessary syncretism on the other."

Perhaps the most appealing aspect of the Dalai Lama's message is that he does not require more of us than we can deliver. He asks only that "According to your own resources, and recognizing the limitations of your circumstances, you will do what you can." Surely that is where all revolutions start.