A

Lama for his generosity and his hospitality here. Thank you very, very
much for opening your home so we could come and be cared for and have
this very important project undertaken. Would you please tell your
household and staff that we are very deeply indebted to them?” He then
turned to me: “Now you can say your piece.”
“Actually, I think you said it so wonderfully, which is to thank each
and every one for the incredible work of making these dialogues possible,
but as a representative of all those who will benefit from this work, I
want to thank you both so profoundly for your life-sustaining and life-
changing words. May the merit of this book benefit all of God’s children
and all sentient beings.”

•           •           •

s we got ready to leave, the Dalai Lama said, “I was very sad to miss
your birthday. When I found out that you might come here, I was
really surprised. I knew your health was not good and that you were also
very old, and to reach here is not easy.”
“Yes,” the Archbishop said, “that’s quite right.”
“But,” the Dalai Lama continued, “when I heard that everything was
finalized, and the date and hour was approaching, I really felt happy and
excited. I really appreciate your friendship and your sense of
responsibility to do what you can for a better humanity.”
Earlier in the week, the Archbishop and the Dalai Lama had reflected
on what was so special about their friendship with characteristic humor.
“He’s always teasing me,” the Archbishop said with a laugh. “Almost
the first time we met—do you remember? Maybe the first time you were
a little reserved, but by the second time you were taking my cap off my
head. I don’t know that you wake up in the morning and say, I’m going to
become a friend to the Dalai Lama. It just happens. Scientists will come
afterward and analyze it. But I don’t think that he woke up either—at
three—and said, I think I’m going to be friends with that large-nosed
black man from Africa. I think it was a communication of the heart.
When we kept quiet, our hearts discovered that they were kindred spirits.