Freedom in Exile

post from Dear (Tommy) John Letters on 17 December 2009 12:11:00 AM. © Dear (Tommy) John Letters

I recently read the 14th Dalai Lama's autobiography entitled, Freedom in Exile. It provided a nice supplement to what I already knew about the Lama from the movie Caddyshack (he is long off the tee and a very generous tipper... spiritually at least, not financially). In all seriousness, this is the first autobiography I've read without knowing anything about the subject. Barnes and Noble pulled me in with their 'buy 2 get books get the third one free' program, and this was book number 3.

Probably the most surprising thing about the book was how incredibly normal and accessible the Dalai Lama seems. He recounts tales of childhood mischief that are very humanizing. He feels like the ideal bridge between the culture of Tibetan monks and Western Civilization. Perhaps that is why he has been able to recruit international help to combat the brutality in Tibet.

I'm not going to write a book review here - I wrote this post to share the following quote. It's from a highly underrated movie called The Tao of Steve. The movie is about an overweight and unattractive man that uses his mastery of Eastern Philosophy to pick up women. Aside from the poor acting and the cheesy ending, it's pretty entertaining. The quote that the autobiography disproved for me..:

"You think all Buddhist monks are like the Dalai Lama? I mean, you don't think there are guys in Nepal, right, who are like, "What should I do? Should I carry packs of heavy s#%* for Westerners up to the top of the base camp on Mt. Everest, or should I stay down here in Katmandu and maybe just chant all day and check out chicks and pretend to be holy?"

Isn't there just a small part of you that always kind of thought that too? Like the whole chanting in a monastery thing sounds a little bit like a vacation?