His Holiness’ Message for the New Year - 2024
On the occasion of the New Year, I would like to thank everyone who has sent me good wishes, and I offer my greetings to you all, brothers and sisters across the world.
Despite the many challenges that we are facing today, I feel optimistic that with a growing appreciation of how interconnected we all are in the oneness of humanity, we can all work to lead more meaningful lives and create a better world.
As human beings we share a common wish to be happy and free from pain. We are social animals who depend on others to survive. Therefore, as I often say, we should work for the benefit of others. If we cannot help them, we should at least make sure we do no harm. I have found that helping others is the best way of ensuring happiness and calm for ourselves.
I also firmly believe that we can find peace in the world only when we find peace within. Every human being has the potential to cultivate inner peace, and by so doing to contribute to the peace of our global community.
We must try to cultivate compassion and inner peace, regardless of our nationality or religion, we can contribute to the well-being and happiness of all mankind. If the last century was the century of violence, it is our responsibility to make this century the century of dialogue.
Once again, I extend warm greetings to you all. I hope that you all enjoy an auspicious beginning to the new year, 2024.
With prayers and good wishes,
Dalai Lama
There’s a cycle to this film business. Films are made by fans of a story or piece of IP for other fans of that kind of film, a niche. Some of those films touch on universal themes and cross over or are so popular they become necessary for the modern social curriculum. Those movies BECOME 4 quadrant. The industry then moves to define those types of films AS four quadrant. Budgets on those types of films swell and swell until even a modest draw from all four quadrants is a financial failure. This causes the studios to develop towards more broadly appealing versions of those films. This works at first but causes the films to become more and more generic and homogenous. It also draws too many resources into one area of the film business and other types of films don’t get made. This causes a tremendous pressure on those other types of films. The films outside of the perceived popular genre that push through must be truly excellent or supported by especially talented and passionate filmmakers (producers, writers, actors, executives AND directors). When they get made, these films tend to benefit from this crucible and tend to be truly excellent. These films ‘pop’ spectacularly especially compared to their industry starved resources. If studios take these chances, like with BARBIE, the success is even further amplified. But - independents tend to thrive in this scenario. SOUND OF FREEDOM is clearly delivering for an undeserved audience. EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE did. Two of my last three greenlights (the other was JOKER which was a left turn but within the accepted genre) did this as well - A STAR IS BORN and CRAZY RICH ASIANS. @stampede_vent we are laser focused on this amazing opportunity. We have three movies coming out this year and 4 or 5 next year and a similar slate for 2025. ALL are designed to deliver spectacularly for an underserved audience. But they are also designed to be welcoming to the curious and those wanting to be a part of the cultural boom we plan to make. All are VERY reasonably budgeted and are driven by passionate Stampeders and producers and directors and writers and actors. They KNOW the audience is out there for female empowerment films, for stories about ORDINARY ANGELS, for family films, for dance films, for romance films, for elevated stylistic action films. I am so excited to see audiences showing up for new franchises. We have known this was coming. Our company is built on a mission of creating new stories to help us all connect. These films are doing that. God bless this beautiful art form and all of you that have the courage and passion to dedicate your lives to it. It’s worth it. I promise.
So proud to be part of making this scholarship happen over the past year with @aftrs and other fab members of the Alumni Advisory Group. Please give generously. 💜
Our team was super-excited to see
@wojennifer in Jennifer Wong has No Peripheral Vision at #melbournecomedyfestival. There's still time to see this show full of vitreous humor and more ocular puns than you can poke a stick at (not in the direction of anyone's eyes please).🤣🤣
The source of a happy life is within us. Troublemakers in many parts of the world are often quite well-educated, so it is not just education that we need. What we need is to pay attention to inner values.
It's important to recognize that if human conflicts are created by the misuse of human intelligence, we can also utilize our intelligence to find ways and means to overcome them. When human intelligence and human goodness are used together, all our actions become constructive.
Meet Tsu Shan Chambers, a Sydney-based optometrist who wears many different hats – she is also an actor, writer and producer, a public health advocate, a production company owner, and a mother to three children. @tsushanchambers#IWD#CrackingTheCode https://t.co/Kyep6x0t6f
Each of us must learn to work not just for his or her own self, family, or nation, but for the benefit of all humankind. Universal responsibility is the real key to human survival. It is the best foundation for world peace.
@9NewsAUS@R_DAlessandro9 Stop spreading that crap out there! This is a form of bullying and propaganda against China and creates further unconscious bias (aka racism) in this country against anyone who looks Asian. Your team has an immense responsibility on shaping culture and beliefs. #fosterpeace
I offer my condolences to those families who have lost loved ones and pray for all those affected by the devastating earthquakes that have struck Turkey and Syria. https://t.co/EsTndNAMIA