Love & Forgiveness award given to Dalai Lama, Tutu

Vanacouver, Sep 28: Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama and Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu were conferred with the Fetzer Prize for Love and Forgiveness on Sunday, Sep 27.

The Dalai Lama who is leading the Vancouver Peace Summit, addressed 10,000 people on the topic of 'World Peace Through Personal Peace' at the opening session of the three-day Peace Summit.

While saying that true compassion is the only way to achieve world peace, the Dalai Lama opined that the technology is in a way standing in the way of humanity's compassion and in turn strangling peace.

Arguing that world would benefit from more women in positions of power as that would bring compassion to the world, the spiritual leader joked, "Some people may call me a feminist, but we need more effort to promote basic human values - human compassion, human affection. And in that respect, females have more sensitivity for others' pain and suffering."

However, back injury kept Bishop Tutu from attending the summit.

Accepting the award via video from Cape Town, Bishop Tutu said, "We know in our hearts that many of our problems stem from our disregard of these virtues - the capacity to forgive, the capacity to reconcile, the capacity for caring for our fellow human beings."

The award, which comprises of a 100,000 dollars monetary prize to help the leader carry on their work, has been instituted by Michigan's Fetzer Institute to honour those who are working towards world peace.

OneIndia News