A Holy Day, After All, Is A

In The Past, Ive Visited Remote Places - North Korea, Ethiopia, Easter Island - Partly As A Way To Visit Remote States Of Mind: Remote Parts Of Myself That I Wouldnt Ordinarily Explore.

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.

Anybody Who Travels Knows That You're Not Really Doing So In Order To Move Around - You're Traveling In Order To Be Moved. And Really What You're Seeing Is Not Just The Grand Canyon Or The Great Wall But Some Moods Or Intimations Or Places Inside Yourself That You Never Ordinarily See When You're Sleepwalking Through Your Daily Life.

I Remember Many Years Ago, I Asked [dalai Lama] About Exile And He Said: "well, Exile Is Good Because It's Brought Me And My People Closer To Reality," And Reality Is Almost A Shrine Before Which He Sits. Exile Brings Us Up Against The Wall And Forces Us To Rise To The Challenge Of The Moment.

With The War In Iraq, He [dalai Lama] Feels That The Causes Of That Lie Maybe Hundreds Of Years Ago, And He Says, "what We Do Now May Have Consequences Far Into The Future That We Will Never See."