In a world full of shifting borders, everything is happening all at once in every possible direction.

The Dalai Lama says don't pray for peace, don't wait for peace, don't talk about peace - do it right now.

From the beginning, I've stressed that home is something internal, invisible, portable, especially for those of us with roots in many physical places; we have to root ourselves in our passions, our values and our deepest friends. My home, I've always felt, lies in the songs and novels that I love, in the wife and mother that I'm never far away from, in the monastery to which I've been returning for 25 years.

I suddenly realized I was racing around so much, I could never catch up with my life

For citizens who think themselves puppets in the hands of their rulers, nothing is more satisfying than having rulers as puppets in their hands.

Every day there are small moments when we have a choice: will we take in more stuff, or just clear our minds out for a bit?

In our appetite for gossip, we tend to gobble down everything before us, only to find, too late, that it is our ideals we have consumed, and we have not been enlarged by the feasts but only diminished.