Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama called on the world this week to unite in a common effort and shared sense of humanity to overcome the coronavirus pandemic, which has now infected 4.13 million people and killed more than 283,000 worldwide.
“In this time of crisis, we face threats to our health and sadness for the families and friends we have lost,” the Dalai Lama said in a statement read publicly on May 9 by the Dalai Lama’s friend and fellow Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
The global economic destruction caused by the spread of the virus has now also undermined the ability of countless people around the world to make a living, the Dalai Lama said.
“At times like this, we must focus on what unites us as members of one human family. Accordingly, we must reach out to each other with compassion,” the spiritual leader said.
“As human beings, we are all the same,” the Dalai Lama said. “We experience the same fears, the same hopes, the same uncertainties.”
Now, the human capacity to reason gives the world’s people the ability to come together in a global response to the pandemic and “to transform hardship into opportunity,” the Dalai Lama said.
“I pray we all heed the call to unite,” he said.