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By CHASE SQUIRES Associated Press
Writer
© 2006 The Associated Press
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The Dalai Lama addresses
the 3,000 students gathered for the PeaceJam
at the University of Denver on Saturday, Sept.
16, 2006. The Dalai Lama and nine other Nobel
Peace Prize Laureates and 3,000 students from
around the world are participating in the
PeaceJam conference that is scheduled to run
through Sunday.
(AP Photo/Ed Andrieski) |
DENVER — The Dalai Lama urged thousands of
teenagers at a world peace conference Saturday to
keep open hearts, practice peace in their daily
lives and accept people from all countries as neighbors
and collaborators, not rivals.
"There are no national boundaries. The whole
globe is becoming one body," he said at the
PeaceJam convention. "In these circumstances,
I think war is outdated ... Destruction of your
neighbor is actually destruction of yourself."
War creates environmental problems, trade gaps
and humanitarian suffering that everyone must
bear, he said, speaking for more than an hour
at the convention, which brought together 10 Nobel
Peace Prize laureates. He won the honor in 1989.
PeaceJam participants _ teens assembled from
31 countries _ opened their first day of lectures
and interactive sessions with laureates at the
University of Denver.
The Dalai Lama urged the teens not to get discouraged
or think they have to stop all wars themselves.
Instead, their mission is to learn from the previous
generation's mistakes and start now by opening
dialogue with each other so there are fewer disagreements,
misunderstandings and violent clashes in the future.
"If we look carefully, I think we are social
animals," he said. "We need a sense
of caring, a sense of concern for others."
Talley McLean, 15, from Fort Collins, Colo.,
said she had already attended sessions dealing
with child enslavement in Africa, the Holocaust
and genocide. Rather than being discouraged, she
said she was energized.
"I probably learned more so far here than
I've ever learned in school," she said.
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