The Book of Joy

“Okay. As I was saying, do you really think that when—I didn’t say if;
I said when—the Dalai Lama arrives in heaven, that God will say, ‘Oh,
Dalai Lama, you’ve been so wonderful. What a pity you are not a
Christian. You’ll have to go to the warmer place.’ Everybody sees just
how entirely ridiculous it is.” The Archbishop paused and then, in a very
intimate moment of friendship said, “I think one of the best things that
ever happened to me was meeting you.”
The Dalai Lama smiled and then started to tell another story.
“I thought you were going to try to eat!” the Archbishop said.
The Dalai Lama chortled and went back to his dessert.
“Yes, but you have been a wonderful influence in the world,” the
Archbishop continued. “There are many, many people that you have
helped to become good people, and people of different religions, people
of different faiths. They can see, they can sense—because I don’t think it
is what you say, although, yes, what you say is okay . . . sort of
acceptable. Scientists also think you are clever, but it is really who you
are. I think everywhere in the world you go, people are aware that you are
authentic. You’re not putting it on. You live what you teach, and you have
helped very, very, very many people recover a belief in their faiths, a
belief also in goodness. You are popular not just with old people but also
with young people. I’ve said that you and Nelson Mandela are the only
people that I can think of who are not pop stars and who could fill Central
Park as you do. I mean when people know that you are going to come and
speak, they come in droves. So the thing we say, about our world being a
secular world and all of that, is only partly true.”
The Dalai Lama waved his hands, dismissing his rank or specialness.
“I always consider myself personally one of the seven billion human
beings. Nothing special. So, on that level, I have tried to make people
aware that the ultimate source of happiness is simply a healthy body and
a warm heart.”
As he spoke, I wondered, why this is so difficult for us to believe and
to act on? It should be obvious that we are the same, but often we feel
separate. There is so much isolation and alienation. Certainly I had grown
up feeling this way in New York City, which at the time was the most