The Dalai Lama -The Practice:

This is from someone who recently returned from India. Her group met with the Dalai Lama for several days. The meetings focused on dialoguing what they believed were the 5 most important questions to be considered moving into the new millennium. The group were asked to come up with five questions before meeting with the Dalai Lama. They were asked:

• How do we address the widening gap between rich and poor?
• How do we protect the earth?
• How do we educate our children?
• How do we help Tibet and other oppressed countries/peoples?
• How do we bring spirituality - deep caring for each other - through all disciplines?

The Dalai Lama said all the questions fall under the last one.

If we have true compassion, our children will be educated, we will care for the earth, and for those who "have not". He asked the group: Do you think loving on the planet is increasing or staying the same? His own response was, "My experience leads me to believe that love IS increasing."

He shared a practice with the group that will increase loving and compassion in the world, and asked everyone attending to go home and share it with as many people as possible.

The Practice:

1. Spend 5 minutes at the beginning of each day remembering we all want the same thing (to be happy and loved) and we are all connected.

2. Spend 5 minutes cherishing yourself and others. Let go of judgments. Breathe in cherishing yourself, and breathe out cherishing others. If the faces of people you are having difficulty with appear, cherish them as well.

3. During the day extend that attitude to everyone you meet - we are all the same, and I cherish myself and you [do it with the grocery store clerk, the client, your family, coworkers, etc.].

4. Stay in the practice, no matter what happens.

Instructions For Life:

1. Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.

2. When you lose, don't lose the lesson.

3. Follow the three R's: Respect for self, Respect for others and Responsibility for all your actions.

4. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.

5. Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.

6. Don't let a little dispute injure a great friendship.

7. When you realize you've made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.

8. Spend some time alone every day.

9. Open your arms to change, but don't let go of your values.

10. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.

11. Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you'll be able to enjoy it a second time.

12. A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.

13. In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don't bring up the past.

14. Share your knowledge. It's a way to achieve immortality.

15. Be gentle with the earth.

16. Once a year, go someplace you've never been before.

17. Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.

18. Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.

19. Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.