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NEW YORK, NY / The New York Times / Opinion / July 24, 2009
The Doctor Is Within
By Pico Iyer
Dalai Lama speaking last month to Tibetan students at the Tibetan Children’s Village School in Dharamsala, India, about the principles of Buddhism. Associated Press/Ashwini Bhatia
“Dream — nothing!” is one of the many things I’ve heard the 14th Dalai Lama say to large audiences that seem to startle the unprepared. Just before I began an onstage conversation with him at New York Town’s Hall this spring, he told me, “If I had magical powers, I’d never need an operation!” and broke into guffaws as he thought of the three-hour gallbladder operation he’d been through last October, weeks after being in hospital for another ailment. For a Buddhist, after all, our power lies nowhere but ourselves.
We can’t change the world except insofar as we change the way we look at the world — and, in fact, any one of us can make that change, in any direction, at any moment. The point of life, in the view of the Dalai Lama, is happiness, and that lies within our grasp, our untapped potential, with every breath. [
rc]
Read more...
Pico Iyer is the author of nine books, most recently, “The Open Road: The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama,” just out in paperback.
The Doctor Is Within
By Pico Iyer
Dalai Lama speaking last month to Tibetan students at the Tibetan Children’s Village School in Dharamsala, India, about the principles of Buddhism. Associated Press/Ashwini Bhatia
“Dream — nothing!” is one of the many things I’ve heard the 14th Dalai Lama say to large audiences that seem to startle the unprepared. Just before I began an onstage conversation with him at New York Town’s Hall this spring, he told me, “If I had magical powers, I’d never need an operation!” and broke into guffaws as he thought of the three-hour gallbladder operation he’d been through last October, weeks after being in hospital for another ailment. For a Buddhist, after all, our power lies nowhere but ourselves.
We can’t change the world except insofar as we change the way we look at the world — and, in fact, any one of us can make that change, in any direction, at any moment. The point of life, in the view of the Dalai Lama, is happiness, and that lies within our grasp, our untapped potential, with every breath. [rc]
Read more...
Pico Iyer is the author of nine books, most recently, “The Open Road: The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama,” just out in paperback.
