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[Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>]

by Pico Iyer


Ceaseless striving providing hope

I heard an interview on NPR with Pico Iyer about this book. Iyer  
mentioned that the Dalai Lama was 72, which is my age as I write this.  
I was suddenly struck by the overwhelming thought that I had become  
this old with my spiritual values still unsettled.

By all measures, Pico Iyer is your basic everyday genius, world  
traveler and visionary writer. He has written eight books plus  
hundreds of essays, columns, articles and book reviews for Time, New  
York Times, National Geographic, Harpers, The Financial Times and  
more. He also happens to have known the Dalai Lama for over thirty  
years. I had held Pico Iyer on my “authors-to-read” list for too long  
to miss this opportunity.

Illustrated with many meetings and occasions over a period of decades,  
the author shows the enormous range of a seemingly simple man. The  
three sections of the book are titled: In Public, In Private, In  
Practice. Chapters are titled: The Conundrum, The Fairy Tale, The  
Icon, The Philosopher, The Mystery, The Monk, The Globalist, The  
Politician, The Future.

The fourteenth Dalai Lama is “built like a middle linebacker” but is  
nonviolent. He is deeply religious--he rises at 3:30am and meditates  
and prays for four hours--but advises others to find their own way. “A  
religious teacher who is telling people not to get confused or  
distracted by religion.” He is considered a living god but insists  
over and over that he is “just a man.”

He often says, “I don’t know.” At the end of a talk in Canada he says,  
“I will remain, to serve.”  He is famous for his laughter; he has a  
solid sense of humor but one suspects also he sees much silliness in  
the antics of those who ask him their profound questions or give him  
their worldly viewpoints.

The author succeeds in illuminating “one of the most visible figures  
on the planet,” a man of wide talents and considerations, whose people  
revere him and hope to learn through his actions. Young Tibetans are  
impatient with his policies but are dumbstruck in his presence. He is  
a doctor of metaphysics but appears childlike to many. A living  
contradiction of superlatives.

I wholeheartedly recommend this book.