May it continue

May the brown grass and green leaves

Thrive in color and in grace

May it Continue

May the clear air and the cumuufocirrus clouds

Be there in the sky and in each breath, always.

May it Continue

May the water made of sweet minerals and salt 

In small streams and large rivers

Flow forever and forever flow to the seas

May it Continue

May the beautiful birds of Hawaii and 

The luminous parrots of Peru fly far and fast

And may their number grow

May it Continue

May the sun shine warm and bright

And the moon give light at night — shining from shook foil

May it Continue

May the deer and elk, the antelope and the ibis

Move and migrate, leap and lope across plan and wooded plateau

May it Continue

May the whale and the dolphin and the manatee

Swim deep in dark oceans and lagoons and sing

May it Continue

May the elephants forever in families roam,

Trunk to tail, trumpeting bliss

May it Continue

May waves of warm frost linger in base and blaze 

That puts fire in the peat of loam. And let lick cry from ripe and vine.

May it Continue

May the rose climb through

The cold murmur of morning dirt

May dark mulch coax tendrils from sleep

May it Continue

May wild words come flying from green coils and

May each breath rustle through the beard of blue moss

In the sound of song

May it Continue

—Thomas Rain Crowe

For those of you who do not know, the Dalai Lama lived in Tibet. He was the ninth child born to his mother, and one day a search party came to his family’s farm, looking for the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama Thupten Gyatso, who had died at the age of 57.

The search party went far and wide, until they reached the farm of his parents. A lama disguised himself as a servant, and looked at the children to see if one would recognize him.

Despite the lama’s disguise, the young child was able to correctly identify him. The child called out, “Sera Lama, Sera Lama!” — Sera being the monastery to which the holy man — the lama — belonged.

The search party returned again, bringing with them several items that had belonged to the 13th Dalai Lama, along with items that did not. In each case, the child correctly chose the items which belonged to the 13th Dalai Lama. After consideration of these and other signs, the search party became convinced that Lhamo Thondup was, indeed, the new incarnation of the Dalai Lama.

Thondup was enthroned as the 14th Dalai Lama in Lhasa on February 22, 1940. He began his monastic education at age of 5.

In October of 1950, an army of 80,000 from Communist China crossed over the border into Tibet. The Tibetian people practice Buddhism, and are therefore nonviolent, and had no weapons to fight the Chinese. Therefore, the Chinese were simply able to walk in and take over Tibet. Their excuse was that Tibet had, centuries ago, belonged to China. The Chinese destroyed temples, killed monks and nuns. There were occasions where they made monks rape nuns, or they would be murdered.

There were many Tibetian people murdered, and in the middle of the night, the Dalai Lama’s attendees and lamas from various temples, the Dalai Lama’s family, and the Dalai Lama himself, snuck out under black skies full of stars, over the mountains and into India.

The Dalai Lama is the spiritual and temporal leader of Tibet. China does make attempts to assassinate him, but luckily for the world, they have not succeeded.

The Dalai Lama lives in Marsala, India, when he is not touring. When he is in Marsala, he meditates a minimum of 5 hours a day. He teaches. There have been groups that come to Marsala to learn from him. Richard Geer is one of his top students. The Dalai Lama believes in peace, compassion, love, forgiveness, karma, happiness and friendship.

Since his exile in India, he has become a champion of world peace and human rights everywhere, as well as being one of the world’s foremost spiritual leaders.

In 1990, I had the privilege and joy to meet the Dalai Lama. He was an amazing man. We spoke, and his energy was pure light. When I walked away, I knew something had changed.

“It is easier to meditate than to actually do something for others. Sometimes I feel that to merely meditate on compassion is to take the passive option. Our meditation should form the basis for action, for seizing the opportunity to do something. The mediator’s motivation, his sense of universal responsibility, should be expressed in deeds.” – The Dalai Lama

“Kindness is the key to peace and harmony” – The Dalai Lama