Dalai Lama Case Study

1. I think that alcoholics should be granted liver transplants. One of the Dalai Lama’s teaching is empathy which he defines as our ability to feel someone else’s suffering or putting ourselves into someone else’s shoe. If we put ourselves into this patient’s shoe, we realise that he needs a liver transplant to survive. We could also perceive that he/she feels pain; the idea of just thinking that our days to live counted makes us feel pain and suffering. Moreover, if we put ourselves into this person’s shoe, we would see that this person demands a second chance to live. The Dalai Lama also talks about compassion. Showing compassion to the patient would then be when we take our empathy further. That is when our thoughts and feelings towards …show more content…
Egoism is an ethical theory which is centered on the idea that our actions should be motivated only by the idea to benefit ourselves, while the Dalai Lama’s ethical perspective is centered on the idea that our actions should be motivated towards benefiting ourselves and everyone else around us. Egoism might lead to happiness, but based on the Dalai Lama’s definition, this happiness is not genuine since it is not inner happiness, and also because the people around us do not benefit from it, while Dalai’s ethical perspective leads to genuine happiness since this happiness is motivated by the need to benefit others. These two ethical theories are similar when it comes to their ideas about doing certain actions. For example; truth-telling, generosity, non-maleficence are all acts that egoism and the Dalai Lama’s ethical perspective do not accept because they have a negative impact. Egoism might not accept these behaviours because they have self-implication while Dalai Lama’s ethical perspective does not approve for the reasons that it will impact us and the people around us. Utilitarianism is the ethical theory that perceives actions as right if they benefit the majority. This ethical theory is similar with the Dalai Lama’s ethical perspective in that it seeks to promote happiness for everyone and makes us view things in a broader picture. Utilitarianism differs with the Dalai Lama’s ethical perspective in that it promotes actions based on outcomes or the amount of suffering …show more content…
The Dalai Lama’s ethical theories resonate to me because they are theories which has helped me to live a more positive and peaceful life throughout the semester. Also, I think that if the world was following his rules, then there will be less suffering, wars, hunger and poverty. I also like the fact that his theories provides guidance for life, and how to deal with problems. An example of how I have applied the Dalai Lama’s theories, was during this semester. I was having bad grades in my English class, and at first I thought that my teacher was doing it on purpose, I was really mad, it got to the point where I was missing classes and not focusing in class. My tutor Sarah Caimano found out about it, and called me over so we could talk. She told me about the Dalai Lama’s theories that we saw in our humanities class, and it made me realise that I was rude to my teacher. As we were talking, I realise that the Dalai Lama would not agree with my decisions and I decided to calm down, not explode at my teacher, and act with empathy and compassion and apologize to her. After apologizing, I was able to talk to her and she was able to help me with my difficulties and I was able to improve my grades. It made me feel really fine and relieved. I did not feel anymore hatred and I was able to concentrate on my English essays and