Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Dalai Lama suggests practicing celibacy to get over a broken heart

He added that he thought the desire for sex was extreme and 'always creates trouble' in an interview with TIME magazine

Chris Mandle
Wednesday 08 July 2015 06:40 BST
Comments
The Dalai Lama
The Dalai Lama (Getty)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

The current Dalai Lama is one of the most important figures in Tibetan Buddhism. He’s received the Nobel Peace Prize, spoke out about women’s rights, astronomy and sexuality, and he’s even had a cup of tea with President Obama.

But now, the Dalai Lama has even reached out to offer his advice on modern relationships, even if he doesn’t admit to ever being in love before.

His Holiness sat down with TIME magazine to chat about all kinds of advice, including growing old, the tension and future of Tibetan Budhists and even an inevitable meeting with Pope Francis.

But they also talked about less politically-charged things, like how you heal a broken heart. And the Dalai Lama had some interesting advice.

“Practice celibacy,” he said. “If you look at the nature of strong attachment, underlying that strong attachment is a clinging, grasping, and if you look at other reactive emotions that arise, actually it is strong attachment that underpins hatred, anger, jealousy and so on, so if you somehow are able to look at this and recognise that a large part of the reception is perception, that could [cure] some of this strong grasping.”

Right.

He also sheds some light on his own, erm, strong grasping, describing the mindset you need to be a dedicated monk.

“I always remember, in a dream, if… a beautiful woman or something like that, I remember I am a monk. It is very helpful.”

The interviewer goes on to ask if that sort of un-grasping is necessary for people who aren’t monks, to which he replies “I think the desire for sex goes extreme, always creates trouble. So that I think, in Western culture, there is a lot of emphasis on sensuality, and sexuality is part of that.”

His comments come shortly after his appearance at Glastonbury this year, where he preached “love and tolerance and fairness” and said he thought the violence in the Middle East was “unthinkable”.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in