The Open Road: The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama [Paperback]

In our media- and soundbite-driven age, every public figure runs the risk of becoming submerged in celebrity status and losing integrity. After all, as author Pico Iyer points out, we live in the Age of the Image (p. 41)--he could just have well said the "Age of Hype"--and media images, unlike the realities they pretend to represent, are one-dimensionally, simplistic. Know this is enough to make any reasonable person a bit suspicious of the buzz surrounding any celebrity, and this is especially true with religious celebrities. How genuinely spiritual can someone who's constantly in the public eye be?

I admit that at times I've asked this about the 14th Dalai Lama. But reading Pico Iyer's intriguing and informative book has set my mind at ease. If Iyer's account is at all accurate (and it should be; Iyer, whose father was a friend of the Dalai Lama's, has known him for many years), the Dalai Lama is a man with such a constant commitment to reality (p. 49) that there's little danger of him buying into the superstar the media insists on giving him. In keeping with his Buddhist tradition, the Dalai Lama has spent a lifetime trying to puncture illusion, deception, interpretive filters, and ideological beliefs--including his own. The Buddha once insisted that he didn't teach "knowledge," because it's too easy for people of knowledge to get trapped inside their beliefs (p. 157). The Dalai Lama lives by these words.

This immediately suggests a tension, which in fact is one of the central themes in Iyer's portrait of the public and personal life of the Dalai Lama. On the one hand, the Dalai Lama insists that the only truths there are must necessarily be universal, cross-cultural ones, and that putative truths which pertain only to specific cultures aren't truths at all (p. 15). This is a reflection in part of his acceptance of the doctrine of shunyata, the interconnectedness of all things, including beliefs (p. 146). Therefore, he looks constantly for the commonality across different cultures and belief systems, and urges others to do so as well.

On the other hand, though, the Dalai Lama is squarely in the Tibetan Buddhist ethos. Iyer points out, for example, that he's actually quite conservative textually. He believes that homosexuality is morally wrong, and he has strong things to say about the use of intoxicants and the permissibility of divorce, and he bases all of these perspectives on a close reading of Tibetan sacred texts. He operates, therefore, within a very specific, culturally-defined belief system.

Far from suggesting an inconsistency, this tension in the Dalai Lama's life is a happy one, and indeed serves as a model for the rest of us, who are after all each come from a specific cultural context. The Dalai Lama is able to bridge the universal and his own religious tradition by not taking himself too seriously. One of his most common expressions, Iyer notes, is "I don't know." He repudiates the title of "Living Buddha," which he claims is a mistranslation of the Tibetan (p. 51), and he tends to think of the institution of the Dalai Lama as a job rather than as prophetic (pp. 73, 131). He insists that his words, and the words of all people, especially those who have a reputation for holiness, should be scrutinized, analyzed, and discussed, and this is exactly the perspective he brings to his own tradition. He remains loyal to it, but he also knows that it doesn't exhaust the realm of possibility. In this regard, he's very much like the Trappist monk Thomas Merton, whose 1968 visit to the Dalai Lama is described by Iyer (pp. 146-50).

Humility, then, is what protects the Dalai Lama from stardom, keeps him focused on his commitment to reality, enables him to seek for universal truths while at the same time celebrating his own particular tradition, and gives him the ability--a rare talent in religious leaders--to laugh at himself. In capturing the contours of this humility, Iyer not only provides us with an insightful portrait of the Dalai Lama. He also gives us some guidelines for living well worth considering.

I heard an interview on NPR with Pico Iyer about this book. Iyer mentioned that the Dalai Lama was 72, which is my age as I write this. I was suddenly struck by the overwhelming thought that I had become this old with my spiritual values still unsettled.

By all measures, Pico Iyer is your basic everyday genius, world traveler and visionary writer. He has written eight books plus hundreds of essays, columns, articles and book reviews for Time, New York Times, National Geographic, Harpers, The Financial Times and more. He also happens to have known the Dalai Lama for over thirty years. I had held Pico Iyer on my "authors-to-read" list for too long to miss this opportunity.

Illustrated with many meetings and occasions over a period of decades, the author shows the enormous range of a seemingly simple man. The three sections of the book are titled: In Public, In Private, In Practice. Chapters are titled: The Conundrum, The Fairy Tale, The Icon, The Philosopher, The Mystery, The Monk, The Globalist, The Politician, The Future.

The fourteenth Dalai Lama is "built like a middle linebacker" but is nonviolent. He is deeply religious--he rises at 3:30am and meditates and prays for four hours--but advises others to find their own way. "A religious teacher who is telling people not to get confused or distracted by religion." He is considered a living god but insists over and over that he is "just a man."

He often says, "I don't know." At the end of a talk in Canada he says, "I will remain, to serve." He is famous for his laughter; he has a solid sense of humor but one suspects also he sees much silliness in the antics of those who ask him their profound questions or give him their worldly viewpoints.

The author succeeds in illuminating "one of the most visible figures on the planet," a man of wide talents and considerations, whose people revere him and hope to learn through his actions. Young Tibetans are impatient with his policies but are dumbstruck in his presence. He is a doctor of metaphysics but appears childlike to many. A living contradiction of superlatives.

I wholeheartedly recommend this book.

The colors of Tibet come alive, and Dharamsala rocks (quite hilariously) into clarity. Iyer brings us into the orbit and inner sanctum of the 14th Dalai Lama -- possibly the last in a long line of Dalai Lamas -- and creates a profoundly thoughtful, intelligent, skeptical, provocative and moving portrait of the most beloved spiritual leader of our time and also a breathtaking bird's eye view of what has become of Tibet and its people in the last 50 years.

The thing that's rare here is the perspective and intellectual honesty: Although he has known the Dalai Lama for thirty years, Iyer isn't a student, a follower, or even a Buddhist pracitioner. There are no overwrought feelings or needless demonstrations of somber respect, or attempts to please a big daddy figure. Iyer asks the hard questions -- has the Dalai Lama done enough for his people? -- and guides us perceptively through a rich assortment of encounters with the spiritual leader, both public and private, while skillfully revealing to us the wild projections we cast upon the smiley icon of Tibet.

I can't imagine a more deliciously highbrow yet gentle-hearted portrait of anybody, much less a human being who has come to play such a huge role in our imaginations but of whom we know (and expect) so little.

Pico Iyer's books are all so good -- I hope you've read The Lady and The Monk -- that I am reluctant to say this is his best work yet, but I feel it is.