Dalai Lama: Gay Marriage? He's Fine With That

Mind you, His Holiness also believes he is the reincarnation of 13 previous Dalai Lamas, and further...

When Lhamo Thondup was two years old, a search party that had been sent out by the Tibetan government to find the new incarnation of the Dalai Lama arrived at Kumbum monastery. It had been led there by a number of signs. One of these concerned the embalmed body of his predecessor, Thupten Gyatso, the Thirteenth Dalai Lama, who had died aged fifty-seven in 1933. During its period of sitting in state, the head was discovered to have turned from facing south to northeast. Shortly after that the Regent, himself a senior lama, had a vision. Looking into the waters of the sacred lake, Lhamoi Lhatso, in southern Tibet, he clearly saw the Tibetan letters Ah, Ka and Ma float into view. These were followed by the image of a three-storied monastery with a turquoise and gold roof and a path running from it to a hill. Finally, he saw a small house with strangely shaped guttering. He was sure that the letter Ah referred to Amdo, the northeastern province, so it was there that the search party was sent...

So this is someone's views that we should really take seriously, right?

NB The influential US broadcaster Larry King thinks Russia has 'banned homosexuality', and the Dalai Lama has an even higher-pitched voice than me...

Free from desire

I heard a programme on BBC Radio 4 about "chemical castration" for serial sex offenders.
Although people working in that field don't use that term, they did say that it's quite common, and the drugs most often used today is fluoxetine - that's the generic name for Prozac.
It's certainly acted as a real passion killer with me, and a lowered libido is one of the most reported side effects in men.
I wonder if there's any connection between losing your sex drive and being happier?
Maybe the Buddhists are onto something when they say nirvana comes from being free from desire?

I also liked this quote I came across yesterday from Flaubert; “To be stupid, selfish, and have good health are three requirements for happiness, though if stupidity is lacking, all is lost.”
Maybe it's better to be miserable after all?