Happiness lies within

Happiness lies within

_ã–Dream _ã” nothing!_㝠is one of the many things I_ã_ve heard the 14th Dalai Lama say to large audiences that seem to startle the unprepared. Just before I began an onstage conversation with him at New York Town_ã_s Hall this spring, he told me, _ã–If I had magical powers, I_ã_d never need an operation!_㝠and broke into guffaws as he thought of the three-hour gallbladder operation he_ã_d been through last October, weeks after being in hospital for another ailment. For a Buddhist, after all, our power lies nowhere but ourselves.

We can_ã_t change the world except insofar as we change the way we look at the world _ã” and, in fact, any one of us can make that change, in any direction, at any moment. The point of life, in the view of the Dalai Lama, is happiness, and that lies within our grasp, our untapped potential, with every breath.

To read more about happiness and the opinions of the Dalai Lama from the New York Times – click here