Libra 05: A man teaching the true inner knowledge.

The Dalia Lama lecturing at the University of Michigan.

In delivering the fourth Wallenberg Lecture in Crisler Arena April 21, the Dalai Lama said that in the 20th century humankind "experimented with many things" that profoundly changed natural, political, economic and psychological conditions.

Recalling a recent visit to the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC, the Dalai Lama said that the exhibits showed the full picture of humanity. The "immeasurable suffering" of those victimized by human greed, hatred and violence was negated by the "compassion and inner strength" of persons like Wallenberg, who "showed how much humanity can achieve."

The great qualities of the human heart–compassion, love and forgiveness–must be conveyed to people in some fashion; they must be developed, he continued. "And as society becomes more secularized, perhaps some of these moral qualities are being neglected at the same time."

If the 21st century is to fulfill his dreams for it, the Dalai Lama said, the present generations, and especially young people, must act with the gentility, compassion and positive frame of mind that are the "basic qualities of human nature."

This image appears on the "Godzdogz", a weblog of "The Dominican Students
at Blackfriars (Priory of the Holy Spirit)", at Oxford University. The caption accompanying this image reads as follows:

The quodlibet, roughly meaning whatever it pleases, was a form of teaching employed in the medieval university at which questions on any topic which pleased the audience were put to a teacher. These questions and answers were sometimes written up and published, most famously in the Quaestiones de quodlibet of Thomas Aquinas.

We hope that this will be a valuable, interactive element to add to our blog. We invite you therefore to propose questions which you feel we might be able to answer - whatever it pleases you to ask. From time to time we will research answers to your questions and post them here.