Logo of His Holiness the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa Thaye DorjeThaye DorjeHis Holiness the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa

Peace

In harmony with the Buddha’s teachings, Thaye Dorje, His Holiness the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa, has a vision of peace. Peace in the world. Peace in the minds of people. Karmapa has a unique vision of what peace really means – a state of complete awareness.

How to achieve such peace? Karmapa teaches that to achieve peace – be it personal peace, or world peace – we must first cultivate our Inner Wealth.

Our Inner Wealth, our innate values of compassion and wisdom, is like a spiritual bank that is always open for us to invest in, and to withdraw from. In a material world with many distractions, it is easy to forget the riches that lie within us. There are great challenges to cultivating Inner Wealth in the 21st century.

To respond to these challenges, Karmapa sets out three clear areas of focus to cultivate Inner Wealth, and help achieve peace.

Areas of focus

1. Education and literacy

Karmapa creates and supports education and literacy programmes to help remove obstacles to understanding. Read more about Karmapa’s work in the area of education and literacy.

2. Youth and intergenerational learning

To grow the level of understanding and compassion in society, Karmapa works on youth and intergenerational learning – bringing together the elders and the young people of society. More about Karmapa’s work with young people.

3. Non-material values

And to help us all connect on a deeper level with ourselves and each other, Karmapa promotes non-material values. In India and around the world, initiatives by Karmapa strengthen values such as compassion, nonviolence, dignity, wisdom, and community. And of course, peace. Read more about non-material values.

Vision of peace

The true nature of all beings, Karmapa teaches, is to seek peace:

“Peace is complete awareness. In this state of awareness, we cultivate and combine compassion and wisdom. In this state of awareness, we are alive, awake, we take responsibility for our actions. In this state, we are not driven by emotion, we control our emotions and actions. In this state, we are patient, nonviolent, we do not judge. In this state, we nurture our Inner Wealth – our innate values – and balance them with outer (material) wealth in a way that benefits all sentient beings. This is peace.”

Karmapa & the Kagyu lineage

Thaye Dorje, His Holiness the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa, is the head of the oldest reincarnate lineage in the world. Read more about Karmapa in his biography.

Karmapa teaches that to achieve peace – be it personal peace, or world peace – we must cultivate our Inner Wealth, practice non-material values, and invest in education and literacy.

“It is essential that non-material values are supported, to help us cultivate balanced and beneficial human beings, who also use their material wealth for the greatest benefit of our fellow human beings.”

“The emphasis and direction of education should not just be about accumulating information to serve outer wealth, but to help develop consciousness, to help young people nurture their innate values of wisdom and compassion for the benefit of society.”

“If there is richness within each and every one of us – Inner Wealth – then there is an almost limitless supply in the vision and values of our young people.”