thanks for posting.

man will be the undoing of mankind.

K&R

I've seen that before and I so agree with you, and him.

It reminds me of this quote: "All men die. But few truly live."

The love of money is the root of all evil...and capitalism is built on the foundation of that love.

"Hell begins on the day when God grants us a clear vision of all that we might have achieved, of all the gifts which we have wasted, of all that we might have done which we did not do."

Gian Carlo Menotti

And I bet you she ends it with "And you can't just make excuses and blame it on Republicans with me, because I really do know better".

I don't know what the truth is.

http://www.livelifehappy.com/the-dalai-lama/

"Often attributed to the Dalai Lama, this appears to be a loose adaptation of the work of Reata Strickland, who has published it as An Interview with God (ISBN 0743229576). Author website
Original text:
“What surprises you most about mankind?”
God answered:
“That they get bored of being children, are in a rush to grow up, and then long to be children again. That they lose their health to make money and then lose their money to restore their health. That by thinking anxiously about the future, they forget the present, such that they live neither for the present nor the future. That they live as if they will never die, and they die as if they had never lived.”"

Another site claims a Jim Brown wrote it:

http://centerforgloballeadership.wordpress.com/2012/06/30/an-interview-with-god-i-stand-corrected/

"Web designer Reata Strickland came across an anonymous version of “Interview With God” and posted it on a local Alabama church website in May of 2001. From there, the internet took over and the rest is history. Reata Strickland later published “An Interview With God”, but she did so as the editor. She makes no claims to be the original “anonymous writer”. In 2002, Publishers Weekly asked the real author to step forward."

and

"Further research strongly suggests the original message was penned by the late James (Jim) Brown – pen name James J. Lachard."

And that someone thought it would get more attention if attributed to a known figure like the Dalai Lama.

If so, the attribution is indeed incorrect.

The sentiment of the quote is no less correct for all that.

Sacrificing health to "make money" sounds like a person working to hard to get extra money, which he then expends to recuperate his health. But many people sacrifice their health to simply earn enough to sustain themselves and their families. Similarly, "living in the present" is really a luxury afforded only to those who have no anxiety about where their next meal is coming from. That's the very rich and those who, like monks, live in communities where their basic needs are more-or-less guaranteed.

Lastly, "lives as if he is never going to die" sounds like thoughtless hedonism. I think that more of us live hoping we won't die today. After all, life is an exercise in denial.

-- Mal

It's convenient to read stuff like elitism into the quote, but that's like reading communism into an Obama speech by Fox Noise or National Hate Radio. What the Dalai Lama was obviously addressing was people who accumulate unnecessary excess wealth to the point of letting their obsession take precedence over their physical well-being.

At the end of the day, it's merely a bit of philosophy. You either feel addressed by it or you don't. I did, that's all. If I get called elitist for that, well there's a first time for everything, I guess.

I look at assumptions when I read things like this. Because I look for them, I find them constantly. If the D.L. was only opining about a certain group, why did he generalize it as "man?" I find platitudes like this disturbing because they seem not to consider the diversity of human experience and neglect the realities of the poorer of us. Now, the D.L. by his position should consider the humblest of us all, and so far as I know he does. But I think this quote ignores or dismisses them, which is elitist in its fashion. If the D.L. wants us to beware of Maya, which is always good advice, I think he could have phrased it better.

Obviously, YMMV. In any event, I certainly wasn't calling you "elitist," and appreciating the message doesn't make you so, it simply means we take away different impressions from it.

-- Mal

to work a day in his pampered life.

It indeed did not.

Besides, if it rings true, why diminish it because it came from the Dalai Lama? I'm no Buddhist. The quote made a lot of sense to me all the same.

My sig line came from a well-know gay man, which I am not. I like it as my sig line nonetheless. I don't care if the guy who penned it was gay or Martian.