This was in a book published some years ago and it was actually a French businessman, a CEO, who had conducted a series of discussions with the Dalai Lama and then published them in French. I read the translated version of it. I could tell that he was a very sincere, well-intentioned man who was clearly trying to get ideas to better the world.

At one point he asked the Dalai Lama, 'Are you more similar to John Lennon or Mahatma Gandhi?'

I'm guessing the Dalai Lama hadn't heard of John Lennon and if he had, wouldn't be so concerned about him. His answer, in the translated version I read, was transcribed as "?!"

So this man actually handed over to the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of the Tibetans, the full lyrics of John Lennon's song, Imagine. So, in the translated edition that I had consulted, we have the Dalai Lama reading out aloud the song. Asked again and again what single role he chooses for himself, the Dalai Lama says, 'I don't know.'

You can tell from the very title, John Lennon's song is about imagining a better world and dreaming a better world. And, although the Dalai Lama speaks very forcefully about the importance of imagining a better world, he is such a realist!

His life has not allowed him to sit on the mountain top and entertain dreams or romantic fantasies. He's having to deal, day in and day out, with the Chinese leadership, Tibetan exiles and many other things.

I think this whole question seems very remote to his experience. And, yet the questioner, the Frenchman, has many questions, probably as I have done over the years, and keeps pressing him.

Image: The Dalai Lama during a Seeds of Compassion Event in Seattle. Photograph: Stephen Brashear/Getty Images

Also read: 'I see fire in the eyes of the Tibetans'

Back

|

Next