Most of them were Christian, and none of them knew the first thing about Buddhism, but they had no hesitancy whatever in calling him His Holiness.

One Tibetan phrase targets this phenomenon precisely: dak che dzin. Dak means “self “; che means “important” or “dear”; dzin means “holding” or “regarding.” This term has various translations, which all capture different nuances: self-centeredness, self-clinging, ego-clinging, self-absorption.

The first is “our ability to maintain positive states.”

The Dalai Lama’s bodhisattva vow is “Every day, think as you wake up: ‘Today I am fortunate to have woken up. I am alive. I have a precious human life. I am not going to waste it. I’m going to use my energies to develop myself, to expand my heart out to others, to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. I am going to have kind thoughts