[the Dalai Lama] Told Me Some Years

When I'm Wandering Around The Himalayas, Most Of The People That I See Are Westerners From Germany, California, Or The Netherlands, Who Are Wearing Sandals, Indian Smocks, And Are In Search Of Enlightenment, Antiquity, Peace, And All The Things They Can't Get In The West. Most Of The People They Meet Are Nepali Villagers In Lee Jeans, Reeboks, And Madonna T-shirts Who Are Looking For The Paradise That They Associate With Los Angeles - A Paradise Of Material Prosperity And Abundance.

Finding A Sanctuary, A Place Apart From Time, Is Not So Different From Finding A Faith.

As A Member Of The Mainstream Media For Many Years, I've Learned Just One Thing: Never To Trust Anything I Read In The Mainstream Media - Not Because Of Any Agenda Or Deliberate Dissimulation, But Simply Because It's Filtered And Comes Very Often From Someone Whose Judgment I Might Not Trust In Other Circumstances.

America Has A Hold On Imaginations That No Other Country Does. I Think That Is Partly Because It Is An Immigrant Country And There Is Still A Kind Of Innocence In America That Translates Very Well Everywhere In The World.

As Thoreau Famously Sead, It Doesn't Matter Where Or How Far You Go - The Farther Commonly The Worse - The Important Thing Is How Alive You Are. Writing Of Every Kind Is A Way To Wake Oneself Up And Keep As Alive As When One Has Just Fallen In Love.