The recent news that the Dalai Lama was ill and admitted to a hospital in India concerned me more than I might have anticipated. Sure, I have been studying Buddhism for some time now and have adopted something like a Buddhist outlook as a result, but this particular jury is still out on the whole reincarnation thing and I'm not convinced that His Holiness is, in fact, the latest incarnation of the Bhodisattva of Compassion. Still, I do not shrink from referring to him as "His Holiness" - he is, I think, a Saint (or the Sanskrit Buddhist equivalent, Arhat ). This, I suppose is why the thought of the Dalai Lama's death affected me the way it did. I would grieve to see such a truly good man leave the world while warmongering buffoons like our fearless leader are running things here.

It is, of course, a fact that the Dalai Lama, like all of us, will die one day. At such time he would probably be the first to remind his mourners of Buddha's Parable of the Mustard Seed , in which the Buddhist notion of impermanence is so vividly illustrated.

I hope reincarnation is a fact. If the Bhodisattva of Compassion is returning time and again in the form of the Dalai Lama to shepherd us out of ignorance, well, there just might be a chance that he will succeed.