To This Day, At My Relatively Advanced

Silence Is Something More Than Just A Pause; It Is That Enchanted Place Where Space Is Cleared And Time Is Stayed And The Horizon Itself Expands. In Silence, We Often Say, We Can Hear Ourselves Think; But What Is Truer To Say Is That In Silence We Can Hear Ourselves Not Think....in Silence, We Might Better Say, We Can Hear Someone Else Think.

I'd Spent Thirty Years Visiting The Dalai Lama, And Twenty Years As A Journalist Going To Difficult Places, War Zones And Revolutions From North Korea To Haiti And Beirut To Sri Lanka, And The Question Came Up: What Does This Man Have To Offer To This World Which Seems So Torn Up And So Attached To Conflict?

The Dalai Lama Acknowledges That He's Met Westerners Who To Some Extent Are Clearly Easterners At Heart, And He Would Never Want Them Not To Become Buddhists Just Because They Happened To Be Born In California.

The Ultimate Purpose Of Zen,' I Remembered The Roshi Telling Me, 'is Not In The Going Away From The World But In The Coming Back. Zen Is Not Just A Matter Of Gaining Enlightenment; It's A Matter Of Acting In A World Of Love And Compassion.

Nothing Makes Me Feel Better - Calmer, Clearer And Happier - Than Being In One Place, Absorbed In A Book, A Conversation, A Piece Of Music. It's Actually Something Deeper Than Mere Happiness: It's Joy, Which The Monk David Steindl-rast Describes As 'that Kind Of Happiness That Doesn't Depend On What Happens.