Ethics for the New Millennium

A book by the 14th Dalai Lama, published in 1999 (in Britain as Ancient Wisdom, Modern World), that proposes an ethics for everyone, religious or not. He starts from the observation that material progress has not made people happier, and that all people want happiness and wish to avoid suffering. Drawing on the Buddhist idea of dependent origination without asking readers to accept Buddhism, he argues that our interests are bound up with those of others, so lasting happiness comes from inner peace and concern for others rather than from possessions. The core chapters set out an ethic of restraint, which curbs destructive emotions such as anger and craving; an ethic of virtue, which cultivates qualities such as patience and contentment; and an ethic of compassion, which he treats as the root of the others. Later chapters apply this to society through the idea of universal responsibility, discussing peace and disarmament, the environment, education, the media and the role of religion.

It is a plain-spoken attempt to found ethics on shared human experience rather than doctrine, and a good introduction to how Buddhist ideas can be applied to public life.