0:00:09.983,0:00:13.871
I've come to talk to you about addiction,[br]the power of addiction,

0:00:13.871,0:00:16.679
but also addiction to power.

0:00:16.679,0:00:19.967
As a medical doctor,[br]I work in Vancouver, Canada,

0:00:19.967,0:00:22.658
and I have worked with some very,[br]very addicted people.

0:00:22.658,0:00:26.091
People who use heroin,[br]they inject cocaine,

0:00:26.091,0:00:31.584
they drink alcohol, crystal meth[br]and every drug known to man.

0:00:31.584,0:00:33.387
And these people suffer.

0:00:33.387,0:00:38.310
If the success of a doctor is to be[br]measured by how long his patients live,

0:00:38.310,0:00:39.900
then I am a failure

0:00:39.900,0:00:43.860
because my patients die very young,[br]relatively speaking.

0:00:43.860,0:00:47.553
They die of HIV, they die of hepatitis C,

0:00:47.553,0:00:50.206
they die of infections[br]of their heart valves,

0:00:50.206,0:00:53.887
they die of infections of their brains,[br]of their spines,

0:00:53.887,0:00:56.198
of their hearts,[br]of their bloodstream.

0:00:56.198,0:01:02.390
They die of suicide, of overdose,[br]of violence, of accidental deaths.

0:01:02.390,0:01:06.251
And if you look at them, you call to mind

0:01:06.251,0:01:10.402
the words of the great Egyptian novelist,[br]Naguib Mahvouz, who wrote:

0:01:10.402,0:01:15.445
"Nothing records the effects of a sad life[br]as graphically as the human body."

0:01:15.445,0:01:17.392
Because these people lose everything.

0:01:17.392,0:01:20.314
They lose their health,[br]they lose their beauty,

0:01:20.314,0:01:23.736
they lose their teeth,[br]they lose their wealth,

0:01:23.736,0:01:25.905
they lose human relationships

0:01:25.905,0:01:28.504
and, in the end,[br]they often lose their lives.

0:01:28.504,0:01:31.503
And yet, nothing shakes them[br]from their addiction.

0:01:31.503,0:01:34.708
Nothing can force them[br]to give up their addiction.

0:01:34.708,0:01:38.715
The addictions are powerful[br]and the question is: why?

0:01:38.715,0:01:40.856
And as one of my patients said to me:

0:01:40.856,0:01:45.387
"I'm not afraid of dying," he said,[br]"I'm more afraid of living."

0:01:45.387,0:01:50.538
And the question we have to ask is:[br]Why are people afraid of life?

0:01:50.538,0:01:53.529
And, if you want to understand addiction,

0:01:53.529,0:01:56.043
you can't look at[br]what's wrong with the addiction;

0:01:56.043,0:01:57.993
you have to look at[br]what's right about it.

0:01:57.993,0:02:00.910
In other words, what's the person getting[br]from the addiction?

0:02:00.910,0:02:03.730
What are they getting[br]that otherwise they don't have?

0:02:03.730,0:02:07.880
What addicts get is relief from pain,

0:02:07.880,0:02:12.661
what they get is a sense of peace,[br]a sense of control,

0:02:12.661,0:02:16.192
a sense of calmness,[br]very, very temporarily.

0:02:16.192,0:02:19.986
And the question is why are[br]these qualities missing from their lives,

0:02:19.986,0:02:22.210
what happened to them?

0:02:22.210,0:02:27.574
If you look at drugs like heroin,[br]like morphine, like codeine,

0:02:27.574,0:02:31.514
if you look at cocaine,[br]if you look at alcohol,

0:02:31.514,0:02:33.754
these are all painkillers.

0:02:33.754,0:02:36.306
In one way or another,[br]they all soothe pain.

0:02:36.306,0:02:38.643
And that's why[br]the real question in addiction

0:02:38.643,0:02:42.570
is not, "Why the addiction?,"[br]but, "Why the pain?"

0:02:42.570,0:02:46.009
Now, I just finished reading[br]the biography of Keith Richards,

0:02:46.009,0:02:48.468
the guitarist for the Rolling Stones

0:02:48.468,0:02:51.322
and, as you probably know,[br]everybody is still surprised

0:02:51.322,0:02:53.696
that Richards is still alive today,

0:02:53.696,0:02:57.031
because he was a heavy-duty[br]heroine addict for a long time.

0:02:57.031,0:03:00.710
And in his biography,[br]he writes that the addiction

0:03:00.710,0:03:05.019
was all about looking for oblivion,[br]looking for forgetting.

0:03:05.019,0:03:08.215
He said, "The contortions[br]that we go through

0:03:08.215,0:03:11.751
just not to be ourselves for a few hours."

0:03:11.751,0:03:14.217
And I understand that very well myself,

0:03:14.217,0:03:16.907
because I know that discomfort with myself,

0:03:16.907,0:03:20.297
I know that discomfort[br]being in my own skin,

0:03:20.297,0:03:24.147
I know that desire[br]to escape from my own mind.

0:03:24.147,0:03:29.709
The great British psychiatrist[br]R.D. Laing said

0:03:29.709,0:03:32.551
that there are three things[br]that people are afraid of.

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They are afraid of death,[br]of other people and of their own minds.

0:03:37.953,0:03:42.183
For a long time in my life, I wanted[br]to distract myself from my own mind,

0:03:42.183,0:03:44.333
because I was afraid to be alone with it.

0:03:44.333,0:03:46.284
And how would I distract myself?

0:03:46.284,0:03:50.951
Well, I've never used drugs,[br]but I've distracted myself through work,

0:03:50.951,0:03:53.968
and throwing myself into activities.

0:03:53.968,0:03:57.421
And I've distracted myself[br]through shopping;

0:03:57.421,0:04:01.694
in my case, for classical compact music,[br]classical compact discs.

0:04:01.694,0:04:03.851
But I've been a real addict that way.

0:04:03.851,0:04:06.968
One week, I spent 8,000 dollars[br]on classical compact discs,

0:04:06.968,0:04:08.487
not because I wanted to,

0:04:08.487,0:04:11.636
but because I couldn't help[br]going back to the store.

0:04:11.636,0:04:14.707
And as a medical doctor,[br]I used to deliver a lot of babies.

0:04:14.707,0:04:16.870
And once I left a woman[br]in labor in hospital

0:04:16.870,0:04:22.073
to get a classical piece of music.

0:04:22.073,0:04:25.758
I still could have made it back[br]to the hospital on time,

0:04:25.758,0:04:28.007
but once in the store you can't leave,

0:04:28.007,0:04:32.536
because there are these evil[br]classical music dealers in the aisles:

0:04:32.536,0:04:36.620
"Hey buddy, have you listened to[br]the latest Mozart symphony cycle?"

0:04:36.620,0:04:38.314
"You haven't? Well..."

0:04:38.314,0:04:40.360
So I missed the delivery of that baby,

0:04:40.360,0:04:42.546
and I came home and I lied[br]to my wife about it.

0:04:42.546,0:04:46.960
Like any addict, I would lie about it[br]and I would ignore my own children

0:04:46.960,0:04:49.854
because of my obsession[br]with work and with music.

0:04:49.854,0:04:53.098
So I know what that[br]escape from the self is like.

0:04:53.098,0:04:54.984
My definition of addiction

0:04:54.984,0:05:01.270
is any behavior that gives you[br]temporary relief, temporary pleasure,

0:05:01.270,0:05:05.356
but in the long term causes harm,[br]has some negative consequences

0:05:05.356,0:05:09.325
and you can't give it up,[br]despite those negative consequences.

0:05:09.325,0:05:12.326
And from that perspective,[br]you can understand

0:05:12.326,0:05:16.077
that there are many, many addictions.

0:05:16.077,0:05:17.966
Yes, there is the addiction to drugs,

0:05:17.966,0:05:21.055
but there is also[br]the addiction to consumerism,

0:05:21.055,0:05:25.697
there is the addiction to sex,[br]to the internet,

0:05:25.697,0:05:29.179
to shopping, to food.

0:05:29.959,0:05:33.243
The Buddhists have this idea[br]of the hungry ghosts.

0:05:33.243,0:05:36.703
The hungry ghosts are creatures[br]with large empty bellies

0:05:36.703,0:05:39.573
and small, scrawny necks[br]and tiny little mouths,

0:05:39.573,0:05:41.527
so they can never get enough,

0:05:41.527,0:05:43.911
they can never fill[br]this emptiness on the inside.

0:05:43.911,0:05:46.557
And we are all hungry ghosts[br]in this society,

0:05:46.557,0:05:48.253
we all have this emptiness,

0:05:48.253,0:05:52.419
and so many of us are trying to fill[br]that emptiness from the outside

0:05:52.419,0:05:57.101
and the addiction is all about trying[br]to fill that emptiness from the outside.

0:05:57.851,0:06:03.275
Now, if you want to ask the question[br]of why people are in pain,

0:06:03.275,0:06:05.714
you can't look at their genetics.

0:06:06.004,0:06:08.203
You have to look at their lives.

0:06:08.203,0:06:11.791
And in the case of my patients,[br]my highly addicted patients,

0:06:11.791,0:06:14.339
it's very clear why they are in pain.

0:06:14.339,0:06:16.675
Because they have been abused[br]all of their lives,

0:06:16.675,0:06:18.941
they began life as abused children.

0:06:18.941,0:06:22.529
All of the women I have worked with[br]over a 12-year period, hundreds of them,

0:06:22.529,0:06:24.977
they had all been[br]sexually abused as children.

0:06:24.977,0:06:26.955
And the men had been traumatized as well.

0:06:26.955,0:06:30.255
The men had been[br]sexually abused, neglected,

0:06:30.255,0:06:32.908
physically abused, abandoned

0:06:32.908,0:06:36.441
and emotionally hurt over and over again.

0:06:36.441,0:06:38.029
And that's why the pain.

0:06:38.029,0:06:42.217
And there is something else here too:[br]the human brain.

0:06:42.217,0:06:45.443
The human brains itself,[br]as you've heard already,

0:06:45.443,0:06:47.879
develops an interaction[br]with the environment.

0:06:47.879,0:06:49.916
It's not just genetically programed.

0:06:49.916,0:06:53.081
So the kind of environment[br]that a child has

0:06:53.081,0:06:56.786
will actually shape[br]the development of the brain.

0:06:56.786,0:07:00.591
Now, I can tell you about[br]two experiments with mice.

0:07:00.591,0:07:03.932
You take a little mouse[br]and you put food in its mouth

0:07:03.932,0:07:07.273
and he'll eat it and enjoy it[br]and swallow it,

0:07:07.273,0:07:10.614
but if you put the food down[br]a few inches away from his nose,

0:07:10.614,0:07:12.781
he will not move to eat it;

0:07:12.781,0:07:16.318
he will actually starve to death[br]rather than eat.

0:07:16.318,0:07:17.567
Why?

0:07:17.567,0:07:21.741
Because, genetically, they knocked out[br]the receptors for a chemical in the brain

0:07:21.741,0:07:23.275
called dopamine.

0:07:23.275,0:07:26.131
Dopamine is the incentive[br]and motivation chemical.

0:07:26.131,0:07:29.366
Dopamine flows[br]whenever we are motivated,

0:07:29.366,0:07:33.081
excited, vital, vibrant,[br]curious about something,

0:07:33.081,0:07:35.526
when we are seeking food[br]or a sexual partner.

0:07:35.526,0:07:37.888
Without the dopamine,[br]we have no motivation.

0:07:37.888,0:07:39.775
Now what do you think the addict gets?

0:07:39.775,0:07:41.516
When the addict shoots cocaine,

0:07:41.516,0:07:44.647
when the addict shoots crystal meth[br]or almost any drug,

0:07:44.647,0:07:47.140
they get a hit of dopamine in their brain.

0:07:47.140,0:07:48.625
And the question is,

0:07:48.625,0:07:52.370
what happened to their brains[br]in the first place?

0:07:52.370,0:07:55.546
Because it's a myth[br]that drugs are addictive.

0:07:55.546,0:07:57.656
Drugs are not by themselves addictive,

0:07:57.656,0:08:00.866
because most people who try most drugs[br]never become addicted.

0:08:00.866,0:08:02.260
So the question is,

0:08:02.260,0:08:05.174
why are some people vulnerable[br]to being addicted?

0:08:05.174,0:08:08.439
Just like food is not addictive,[br]but to some people it is;

0:08:08.439,0:08:11.115
shopping is not addictive,[br]but to some people it is;

0:08:11.115,0:08:13.831
television is not addictive,[br]but to some people it is.

0:08:13.831,0:08:17.008
So the question is, [br]why this susceptibility?

0:08:19.247,0:08:21.611
There's another[br]little experiment with mice

0:08:21.611,0:08:23.503
where infant mice,

0:08:23.503,0:08:27.655
if they are separated from their mothers[br]will not cry for their mothers.

0:08:27.655,0:08:29.449
Now what would that mean in the wild?

0:08:29.449,0:08:30.837
It means that they would die,

0:08:30.837,0:08:34.205
because only the mother protects[br]the child's life and nurtures the child.

0:08:34.205,0:08:35.253
And why?

0:08:35.253,0:08:38.385
Because genetically[br]they knocked out the receptors,

0:08:38.385,0:08:42.497
the chemical binding sites in the brain,[br]for endorphins

0:08:42.497,0:08:46.960
and endorphins are indigenous[br]morphine-like substances;

0:08:46.960,0:08:50.130
endorphins are our own[br]natural painkillers.

0:08:50.130,0:08:56.130
What morphine or endorphins also do is[br]they make possible the experience of love;

0:08:56.130,0:08:59.262
they make possible the experience[br]of attachment to the parent

0:08:59.262,0:09:01.564
and the parents' attachment to the child.

0:09:01.564,0:09:05.180
So these little mice without[br]endorphin receptors in their brains

0:09:05.180,0:09:07.366
will naturally not call for their mothers.

0:09:07.366,0:09:08.694
In other words,

0:09:08.694,0:09:14.352
the addiction to these drugs and[br]of course the heroine and the morphine,

0:09:14.352,0:09:17.894
what they do is they act[br]on the endorphin system;

0:09:17.894,0:09:19.966
that's why they work.

0:09:19.966,0:09:23.045
And so, the question is,

0:09:23.045,0:09:27.354
what happens to people that they need[br]these chemicals from the outside?

0:09:27.354,0:09:30.411
Well, what happens to them is,[br]when they are abused as children,

0:09:30.411,0:09:32.738
those circuits don't develop.

0:09:33.768,0:09:36.372
When you don't have love[br]and connection in your life,

0:09:36.372,0:09:37.926
when you are very, very young,

0:09:37.926,0:09:41.872
then those important brain circuits[br]just don't develop properly.

0:09:41.872,0:09:46.406
And under conditions of abuse,[br]things just don't develop properly

0:09:46.406,0:09:51.599
and their brains then[br]are susceptible when they do the drugs.

0:09:51.599,0:09:54.484
Now they feel normal,[br]now they feel pain relief,

0:09:54.484,0:09:56.069
now they feel love.

0:09:56.069,0:10:00.116
And as one patient said to me:[br]"When I first did heroine," she said,

0:10:00.116,0:10:05.284
"it felt like a warm soft hug,[br]just like a mother hugging her baby."

0:10:06.410,0:10:12.738
Now, I've had that same emptiness,[br]not to the same degree as my patients.

0:10:12.738,0:10:16.883
What happened to me is that[br]I was born in Budapest, Hungary,

0:10:16.883,0:10:19.358
in 1944, to Jewish parents,

0:10:19.358,0:10:22.054
just before the Germans occupied Hungary.

0:10:22.054,0:10:25.759
And you know what happened[br]to the Jewish people in Eastern Europe.

0:10:25.759,0:10:29.857
And I was 2 months old[br]when the German army moved into Budapest.

0:10:29.857,0:10:33.789
And the day after they did,[br]my mother phoned the pediatrician

0:10:33.789,0:10:35.053
and she said,

0:10:35.053,0:10:38.747
"Would you please come and see Gabor[br]because he is crying all the time."

0:10:38.747,0:10:41.903
And the pediatrician said,[br]"Of course, I will come to see him,

0:10:41.903,0:10:45.515
but I should tell you,[br]all of my Jewish babies are crying."

0:10:45.515,0:10:46.787
Now why?

0:10:46.787,0:10:51.089
What do babies know about Hitler[br]or genocide or war?

0:10:51.089,0:10:52.331
Nothing.

0:10:52.331,0:10:55.728
What we were picking up on[br]is the stresses and the terrors

0:10:55.728,0:10:57.995
and the depression of our mothers

0:10:57.995,0:11:02.522
and that actually shapes[br]the child's brain.

0:11:02.522,0:11:07.325
And of course,[br]what happens then

0:11:07.325,0:11:10.478
is I get the message[br]that the world doesn't want me,

0:11:10.478,0:11:12.584
because if my mother is[br]not happy around me,

0:11:12.584,0:11:15.340
she must not want me.

0:11:15.340,0:11:17.886
Why do I become a workaholic later?

0:11:17.886,0:11:21.281
Because if they don't want me,[br]at least they are going to need me.

0:11:21.281,0:11:24.691
And I'll be an important doctor[br]and they are going to need me

0:11:24.691,0:11:26.311
and that way I can make up

0:11:26.311,0:11:29.361
for the feeling of not being[br]wanted in the first place.

0:11:29.361,0:11:31.123
And what does that mean?

0:11:31.123,0:11:33.342
It means that I am working all the time,

0:11:33.342,0:11:38.321
and when I am not working,[br]I'm consumed by buying music.

0:11:38.321,0:11:40.432
What message do my kids get?

0:11:40.432,0:11:43.450
My kids get the same message[br]that they are not wanted.

0:11:43.450,0:11:46.503
And this is how we pass it on,[br]we pass on the trauma,

0:11:46.503,0:11:49.315
and we pass on the suffering,[br]unconsciously,

0:11:49.315,0:11:52.867
from one generation to the next.

0:11:52.867,0:11:56.049
So obviously, there are many,[br]many ways to fill this emptiness,

0:11:56.049,0:11:59.382
and for each person, there is a different[br]way of filling the emptiness,

0:11:59.382,0:12:01.107
but the emptiness always goes back

0:12:01.107,0:12:07.702
to what we didn't get[br]when we were very small.

0:12:07.702,0:12:11.097
And then we look at the drug addict[br]and we say to the drug addict,

0:12:11.097,0:12:13.546
"How can you possibly do this to yourself?

0:12:13.546,0:12:17.121
How can you possibly inject[br]this terrible substance into your body

0:12:17.121,0:12:18.956
that may kill you?"

0:12:18.956,0:12:21.053
But look at what[br]we are doing to the earth.

0:12:21.053,0:12:24.141
We are injecting all kinds of things[br]into the atmosphere

0:12:24.141,0:12:28.089
and the oceans and the environment

0:12:28.089,0:12:30.488
that is killing us,[br]that's killing the earth.

0:12:30.488,0:12:33.131
Now which addiction is greater?

0:12:33.131,0:12:36.191
The addiction to oil? Or to consumerism?

0:12:36.191,0:12:38.499
Which causes the greater harm?

0:12:38.499,0:12:40.481
And yet we judge the drug addict

0:12:40.481,0:12:43.562
because we actually see[br]that they are just like us

0:12:43.562,0:12:45.213
and we don't like that.

0:12:45.213,0:12:48.672
So we say, "You are different from us,[br]you are worse than we are."

0:12:48.672,0:12:54.111
(Applause)

0:12:55.831,0:13:00.730
On the plane to São Paulo[br]and Rio de Janeiro,

0:13:00.730,0:13:04.059
I was reading the New York Times,[br]on June 9th,

0:13:04.059,0:13:06.220
and there was an article about Brazil

0:13:06.220,0:13:10.199
and the article was about a man[br]called Nísio Gomes,

0:13:10.199,0:13:14.178
a leader of the Guarani people[br]in the Amazon,

0:13:14.178,0:13:18.628
who was killed last November[br]and you probably heard about him.

0:13:18.628,0:13:21.919
And he was killed because[br]he was protecting his people

0:13:21.919,0:13:25.210
from the big farmers and the companies

0:13:25.210,0:13:28.613
that are taking over the rainforest[br]and destroying the rainforest

0:13:28.613,0:13:32.410
and that are destroying the habitat of[br]the native Indian people here in Brazil.

0:13:32.410,0:13:36.342
And I can tell you that coming from Canada[br]the same thing has happened over there.

0:13:36.342,0:13:39.731
And many of my patients are actually[br]First Nation's Indian people,

0:13:39.731,0:13:43.503
native Indian people in Canada,[br]and they are heavily addicted.

0:13:43.503,0:13:47.085
They make up a small percentage[br]of the population,

0:13:47.085,0:13:50.296
but they make up a large percentage[br]of the people in jail,

0:13:50.296,0:13:51.667
the people who are addicted,

0:13:51.667,0:13:53.610
the people who are mentally ill,

0:13:53.610,0:13:55.518
the people who commit suicide. Why?

0:13:55.518,0:13:57.696
Because their lands were[br]taken away from them,

0:13:57.696,0:14:02.946
and because they were killed and abused[br]for generations and generations.

0:14:02.946,0:14:04.466
But the question I ask is,

0:14:04.466,0:14:07.216
if you can understand the suffering[br]of these native people

0:14:07.216,0:14:11.768
and how that suffering makes them[br]seek relief from pain in their addictions,

0:14:11.768,0:14:14.017
what about the people[br]who are perpetrating it?

0:14:14.017,0:14:15.516
What are they addicted to?

0:14:15.516,0:14:17.511
Well, they are addicted to power,

0:14:17.511,0:14:19.421
they are addicted to wealth,

0:14:19.421,0:14:21.201
they are addicted to acquisition.

0:14:21.201,0:14:23.493
They want to make themselves bigger.

0:14:23.493,0:14:26.310
And when I was trying to understand[br]the addiction to power,

0:14:26.310,0:14:28.977
I looked at some of the most[br]powerful people in history.

0:14:28.977,0:14:33.569
I looked at Alexander the Great,[br]I looked at Napoleon, I looked at Hitler,

0:14:33.569,0:14:35.862
I looked at Genghis Kahn,[br]I looked at Stalin.

0:14:35.862,0:14:38.705
It's very interesting[br]when you look at these people.

0:14:38.705,0:14:41.898
First of all, why did they need[br]power so much?

0:14:41.898,0:14:43.686
Interestingly enough,

0:14:43.686,0:14:46.431
physically they were all [br]very small people,[br]

0:14:46.431,0:14:52.216
my size or smaller; actually smaller.

0:14:52.216,0:14:56.483
They came from outsiders,

0:14:56.483,0:14:59.242
they were not part[br]of the major population.

0:14:59.242,0:15:04.153
Stalin was a Georgian, not a Russian;[br]Napoleon was a Corsican, not a Frenchman;

0:15:06.043,0:15:13.103
Alexander was a Macedonian, not a Greek;[br]and Hitler was an Austrian, not a German.

0:15:13.683,0:15:16.394
So a real sense of insecurity[br]and inferiority.

0:15:16.394,0:15:19.704
And they needed power[br]to feel okay in themselves,

0:15:19.704,0:15:21.304
to make themselves bigger,

0:15:21.304,0:15:24.606
and in order to get that power,[br]they were quite willing to fight wars

0:15:24.606,0:15:28.414
and to kill a lot of people,[br]just to maintain that power.

0:15:29.354,0:15:32.363
I'm not saying that only small people[br]can be power-hungry

0:15:32.363,0:15:34.923
but it is interesting to look at[br]these examples,

0:15:34.923,0:15:38.573
because power, the addiction to power,[br]is always about the emptiness

0:15:38.573,0:15:40.753
that you try and fill from the outside.

0:15:40.753,0:15:45.217
And Napoleon, even in exile[br]on the island of St. Helena,

0:15:45.217,0:15:49.669
after he lost his power,[br]he said, "I love power, I love power."

0:15:49.669,0:15:52.906
He couldn't think of himself[br]without power.

0:15:52.906,0:15:56.953
He had no sense of himself[br]without being powerful externally.

0:15:56.953,0:16:01.049
And that's very interesting[br]when you compare it to people

0:16:01.049,0:16:03.465
like the Buddha or Jesus,

0:16:03.465,0:16:05.913
because if you look at the story[br]about Jesus and Buddha,

0:16:05.913,0:16:08.535
both of them were tempted by the devil

0:16:08.535,0:16:14.307
and one of the things that the devil[br]offers them is power, earthly power,

0:16:14.307,0:16:16.510
and they both say no.

0:16:16.510,0:16:18.333
Now why do they say no?

0:16:18.333,0:16:23.504
They say no because they have[br]the power inside of themselves,

0:16:23.504,0:16:25.525
they don't need it from the outside.

0:16:25.525,0:16:28.688
And they both say no[br]because they don't want to control people,

0:16:28.688,0:16:30.463
they want to teach people.

0:16:30.463,0:16:35.685
They want to teach people by example[br]and by soft words,

0:16:35.685,0:16:41.477
and by wisdom, not through force;[br]so they refuse power.

0:16:41.477,0:16:44.392
And it's very interesting[br]what they say about that.

0:16:46.292,0:16:53.484
Jesus says that the power and the reality[br]is not outside of yourself but inside.

0:16:53.484,0:16:56.527
He says the Kingdom of God is within.

0:16:57.377,0:17:01.359
And the Buddha, before he dies[br]and his monks are mourning and crying

0:17:01.359,0:17:02.691
and they are all upset,

0:17:02.691,0:17:06.214
he says, "Don't mourn me,"[br]he says, "And don't worship me.

0:17:06.214,0:17:12.854
Find a lamp inside yourself, be a lamp[br]unto yourselves, find a light within."

0:17:12.854,0:17:16.918
And so as we look this difficult world[br]with the loss of the environment

0:17:16.918,0:17:21.970
and global warming[br]and the depredations in the oceans,

0:17:21.970,0:17:25.032
let's not look to the people in power[br]to change things,

0:17:25.032,0:17:28.756
because the people in power,[br]I'm afraid to say, are very often

0:17:28.756,0:17:31.299
some of the emptiest people in the world

0:17:31.299,0:17:33.392
and they are not going to[br]change things for us.

0:17:33.392,0:17:35.838
We have to find that light[br]within ourselves,

0:17:35.838,0:17:38.356
we have to find the light[br]within communities

0:17:38.356,0:17:41.814
and within our own wisdom[br]and our own creativity.

0:17:41.814,0:17:45.012
We can't wait for the people in power[br]to make things better for us,

0:17:45.012,0:17:48.972
because they are never going to,[br]not unless we make them.

0:17:53.022,0:17:58.494
They say that human nature is competitive,[br]that human nature is aggressive,

0:17:58.494,0:18:00.489
that human nature is selfish.

0:18:00.489,0:18:03.964
It's just the opposite;[br]human nature is actually cooperative,

0:18:03.964,0:18:09.499
human nature is actually generous,[br]human nature is actually community-minded.

0:18:09.499,0:18:13.614
What we see here at this conference[br]with people sharing information,

0:18:13.614,0:18:17.289
people receiving information,[br]people committed to the better world,

0:18:17.289,0:18:19.084
that's actually human nature.

0:18:19.084,0:18:20.626
And what I am saying to you is,

0:18:20.626,0:18:23.825
if you find that light within,[br]if you find your own nature,

0:18:23.825,0:18:25.714
then we will be kinder to ourselves

0:18:25.714,0:18:27.675
and we will also be kinder to nature.

0:18:27.675,0:18:28.957
Thank you.

0:18:28.957,0:18:32.408
(Cheers) (Applause)