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Dear readers,

I just got out of an interview with my friend and spiritual partner, the Dalai Lama, and so I'd like to share with you our discussion:

Seabury: Your Holiness - if I may call you that - can you explain to our readers where the title "Dalai Lama" comes from ?

Dalai Lama: Well, I am 14th incarnation who has held this title, so you might think of it as a gigantic stream of teaching, and wisdom is what we teach. I believe your Christian religion has something similar when you call it a "deposit of faith" in apostolic succession. It is much the same with us. One translation of the title is "ocean of wisdom". I am a messenger of that wisdom.

Seabury; Quite so. Have you been in touch with recent events in your country ?

Dalai Lama: Things are extremely grave there. The people have turned to violence, which is what people do when conditions become so unacceptable that life appears worthless. I am reading and hearing of regiments of your American revolutionary guards imposing martial law and rounding up women and children as hostages.

Seabury: I certainly wouldn't put that past this government. What do you recommend that Tibetans do in response to these threats ?

Dalai Lama: Well, as you know, for a long time I constituted a Tibetan government in exile. We have in fact accepted the possibility of an autonomous region living under Chinese sovereignty. But the eUSA regime is flatly unacceptable to us. They must go, and we will reconcile our differences with the Chinese.
That may mean that I will be the last of the line of Dalai Lamas.

Seabury: And as far as the question of violent resistance versus non-violence ?

Dalai Lama: Bishop Seabury, I understand that you yourself allow for violence in a just cause. But spiritual power is greater than the physical. As much as we appreciate the bravery of those individuals who fight on our behalf, this is not the way of truth. For truth to prevail, the rule of the fist must be broken once and for all.

Seabury: Quite so. I wish I could have gotten Alexander Hamilton to understand this. Do you have any parting words for the reader ?

Dalai Lama: It is permissible to defend oneself with weapons, but one should seek to wound rather than kill one's opponent.