Dalai Lama

I found out the day after it happened that the Dalai Lama had visited Idaho. Not my town. It's a three or four hour drive, and I had to work, so perhaps it's just as well I heard about it after the fact. :-) A summary indicates that the emphasis was on interfaith cooperation.

I have read the Dalai Lama's autobiographical account of the flight from Tibet. The book "In Exile from the Land of Snows" contains most of that story, plus details from others during the flight, and accounts of what came after. The section on Chinese prison camps was particularly difficult to get through. It is hard to believe that human beings can do that to one another, and sickening to realize that they can.

The closest I generally get to prayer is to express this wish for everyone in the world: "Strength to those who need it. Peace to those who seek it." To my mind, anything more specific is...likely to cause problems. For instance, I could wish for world peace; but the world could be peaceful under a tyrannical dictator. I could wish for an end to hunger, but largescale deaths in poverty-stricken countries could fulfill such a wish. So I keep it simple and small. "Strength to those who need it. Peace to those who seek it."