How To Be Happy In 2017, By The Dalai Lama

Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso Calls Upon Humanity to Defend the Planet. Dorothée Werner Meets the Sage and the Environmentalist.
 

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After waking up at 3am and meditating for four hours, his Holiness the Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso met us fresh and incredibly full of youth, solidarity and vivacity. (The French Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard was our translator.) Even though the Nobel Peace Prize laureate and a world-renowned figure for non-violence renounced political power in 2011, he continues to be there for Buddhists, who consider him a spiritual master. For the rest of the world, he is a pop icon, receptive to his exponential popularity and prone to changing his expressions as quickly as the sky is transformed by a strong wind. In an instant, a childish laugh becomes most serious and solemn. After all, times are indeed grave: alarmed by the state of the planet, he calls upon everyone to take up the responsibility in his book*.

ELLE: What kind of environmentalist are you?

DALAI LAMA: We are all environmentalists. [Environmentalism] is the realisation that being in touch with nature makes us happy. It is the feeling that tells us something is not right when we see trees without birds. It is being aware of the fact that if we use too many pesticides, we will not see the bees, butterflies or birds anymore in the fields; something in us will not function properly, because we are a part of nature.

ELLE: Does being an environmentalist mean stopping the consumption of meat?

DL: Yes, and of fish too. Over fishing causes havoc; many species are disappearing. The manner in which we are consuming [meat] is threatening biodiversity. Too often, fishermen, herders, butchers or personnel of slaughterhouses have no conscience of the suffering of the animals they kill. We need to make individual and collective efforts to promote vegetarianism. As for myself, I have official obligations—I am not always a vegetarian, but I try as much as possible to be one.