The Open Road: The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama

by Pico Iyer

Pico Iyer has been engaged in conversation with the Dalai Lama (a friend of his father�s) for the last three decades-a continuing exploration of his message and its effectiveness. Now, in this insightful, impassioned book, Iyer captures the paradoxes of the Dalai Lama�s position: though he has brought the ideas of Tibet to world attention, Tibet itself is being remade as a Chinese province; though he was born in one of the most remote, least developed places on earth, he has become a champion of globalism and technology. He is a religious leader who warns against being needlessly distracted by religion; a Tibetan head of state who suggests that exile from Tibet can be an opportunity; an incarnation of a Tibetan god who stresses his everyday humanity.Moving from Dharamsala, India-the seat of the Tibetan government-in-exile-to Lhasa, Tibet, to venues in the West where the Dalai Lama�s pragmatism, rigour, and scholarship are sometimes lost on an audience yearning for mystical visions, The Open Road illuminates the hidden life, the transforming ideas, and the daily challenges of a global icon.

Genres: Buddhism, Nonfiction, Biography, Spirituality, Philosophy, Travel, Religion

288 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Pico Iyer is a British-born essayist and novelist of Indian descent. As an acclaimed travel writer, he began his career documenting a neglected aspect of travel -- the sometimes surreal disconnect between local tradition and imported global pop culture. Since then, he has written ten books, exploring also the cultural consequences of isolation, whether writing about the exiled spiritual leaders of Tibet or the embargoed society of Cuba.

Iyer’s latest focus is on yet another overlooked aspect of travel: how can it help us regain our sense of stillness and focus in a world where our devices and digital networks increasing distract us? As he says: "Almost everybody I know has this sense of overdosing on information and getting dizzy living at post-human speeds. Nearly everybody I know does something to try to remove herself to clear her head and to have enough time and space to think. ... All of us instinctively feel that something inside us is crying out for more spaciousness and stillness to offset the exhilarations of this movement and the fun and diversion of the modern world."

Reviews

[robin friedman · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Open Road

Pico Iyer's new book subtitled "The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama" takes its title and theme from an essay by D. H. Lawrence about Walt Whitman and his poem, "The Song of the Open Road". Lawrence wrote "The great home of the Soul is the open road. Not heaven, not paradise, not `above'" The human person (or "soul" for Lawrence) "is a wayfarer down the open road" and democracy flowers "where soul meets soul in the open road." (Iyer, pp. 13-14)

Whitman's poetry, with its journeying, democratizing, spirituality, and sense of the private makes a fitting motto for Iyer's book. In describing the Dalai Lama and his journeys, Iyer also makes excellent use of appropriate short head notes from Thoreau, Michael Faraday, Emerson, Thomas Merton, Aldous Huxley, Marcel Proust, Etty Hillesum (Holocaust victim), and Beijing journalist Xinran Xue. These introductory quotations illuminate the story Iyer has to tell. I found especially illuminating the following Hasidic proverb which introduces the final section of Iyer's book, "In Practice":

" You must invent your own religion or else it will mean nothing to you. You must follow the religion of your fathers, or else you will lose it."

Pico Iyer is a journalist who writes regularly for the "New York Review of Books." He has known the Dalai Lama for over thirty years. Iyer's father, who had been born in Bombay and went on to study at Oxford, was five years older than the Dalai Lama. Iyer's father became friends with the Dalai Lama after the latter fled to India in 1959. Iyer is not a Buddhist, but he writes of the Dalai Lama and his teachings with great sympathy together with a commendable attempt at objectivity.

The book begins slowly and meanders from place-to-place. Iyer's portrait of the Dalai Lama emerges only gradually. Iyer portrays the multi-faceted characters of the Dalai Lama as spiritual leader for Tibetan Buddhism (viewed as a god by some within the Tibetan tradition), political leader and statesman for the Tibetan government in exile, religious seeker, Buddhist monk, and ordinary human being. The Dalai Lama's most appealing traits include his humility and self-effacing character under the glare of constant media attention usually accorded to entertainers and some politicians. Iyer is impressed with the Dalai Lama's ability to communicate at a simple level basic human and religious values to people of varying religious denominations or of no religion at all. The Dalai Lama has tried to encourage people to explore their own religious traditions rather than convert to Tibetan Buddhism. Yet besides the openness of his message, he is a person of great learning and practice within the Tibetan tradition, which he explores in depth in seminars and trainings beyond his public appearances.

Iyer's book is in three parts. The first part, "In Public" focuses on the celebrity the Dalai Lama has become in recent years and examines his public appearances worldwide with emphasis on visits to Japan and to Vancouver. The second part of the book, "The Philosopher", gives a more in-depth picture of the Dalai Lama and of Tibetan Buddhism. Iyer shows rituals, teachings, and schisms within this school of Buddhism that will be unfamiliar to those who know only the public face of the Dalai Lama. He describes well an encounter between the Dalai Lama and the American monk Thomas Merton just before Merton's untimely death, and he compares the spirituality of these two different traditions. Both the Dalai Lama and Merton had the goal of finding commonality among different religious paths.

The final part of the book "In Practice" offers a detailed look at Dhramasala, India, home of the Tibetan government in exile. Iyer discusses the difficulties in the Dalai Lama's path in returning the Tibetan people to their homeland under a rapprochement with China. The Tibetan people will face an uncertain future upon the death of the Dalai Lama, with the loss of the prestige and respect he has garnered on an individual level.

For Iyer, the Dalai Lama recognized early, as did his predecessor, the Thirteenth Dalai Lama, that Tibet erred in attempting to shut out modern life. The Dalai Lama has tried to learn himself the science and knowledge that the West has to offer. He has given, in turn, a perspective on spiritual growth and on humanism that people from many backgrounds and stages of life find inspiring. In Iyer's account the Dalai Lama is a possible guide to the open road that remains to be found by every person.

Robin Friedman

[Manu · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my favourite authors writing about a human being who has intrigued me from the time I read Siddhartha. It didn't disappoint at all!
What is it like to live, practice, preach a faith while facing oppression from one of the most powerful countries in the world? Even as Tibet becomes more of a Chinese province day by day - the Potala Palace is treated as just another tourist attraction and the streets of Lhasa are filled with entertainment and shopping options - and several Tibetans question the wisdom of his approach, he is respected across the globe as a spiritual leader for the universal truths he espouses.
And yet, he underplays the role of religion, and stresses his own humanity while creating a future for Tibetans that is less dependent on him. He has brought Tibet to the world - a culture that was as hidden as a treasure and also gave the world a brand of Buddhism that is universal in appeal. Pico puts Tibet well in the context of a world that has moved from too little info about itself to too much in a few years.
He also writes well about how even with all the respect, people probably see his images and messages through the 'keyhole of their own priorities'. He once mentions an instance when the Dalai Lama cried- he was asked 'what is the quickest, cheapest, easiest way to attain enlightenment'.
While much of the book deals with His Holiness' thoughts and perspectives, there are also mentions of his family, his early days including the time he was forced to flee from Tibet, and quite a few pages devoted to Dharmasala. Dharamsala - where foreigners come seeking wisdom, antiquity and mysticism from every Tibetan they see, and some Tibetans play the part to understand and probably even reach the lands of 'abundance and freedom'. Pico Iyer writes about the confusion faced by young Tibetans - on whether to stay on in Dharmasala or go back to Tibet to either change or be changed. Dharmasala - also the place to which Tibetans flock, braving persecution by the Chinese, just for a glimpse of their leader and their belief that at some point in time, he will solve their problems.
In addition to all of this, the wonderful quotes, the additional sources of information on the subject, and various perspectives all offer us some thoughts on 'joyful participation in a world of sorrows'.

[Sean Leas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not an over-stimulating read, but I gained some insight into Tibetan heiarchy. I was really hoping for a candid insiders view, instead I was left wanting. Additionally, the writing style and strength didn't seem to fit the subject matter.

[Mazola1 · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Open Road bills itself as a look at the paradoxical life of the Dalai Lama written by someone who has known him for three decades. While the book does examine the Dalai Lama as a spiritual and temporal leader, a man with one foot planted firmly in the ancient past of his Buddhist tradition and one foot planted firmly in the modern world, it is surprisingly superficial and spotty.

The premise of the book is far better than its execution. For instance, Iyer quotes a Tibetan as saying that Tibetans are proud if Westerners enjoy their spiritual life, but what they care about right now is politics. Iyer does not fully develop and explore this theme of the tension of these two roles in the Dalai Lama's life, and the difficulty of combining them. Nor does his book provide us with a compelling and fresh look at the Dalai Lama, which is disappointing given his long standing friendship with and access to him.

At times the writing is insightful and interesting, but at other times the book just seems to descend into trivial details. At bottom, although this book seemed promising, it was ultimately disappointing.

[Bharath · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had high expectations of this book and was disappointed. The book devotes considerable space to the situation in Tibet and how China has consolidated it's hold. It also has a few personal episodes describing Pico Iyer's conversations with the Dalai Lama. However, these are few and mostly cover matter known in the public domain. There is little information on Tibetan Buddhism itself and not enough of the Dalai Lama's personal life and thoughts. This book simply skims the surface on what could have been a very interesting book.

[Jonna Higgins-Freese · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was absolutely lovely -- nuanced and detailed and sharp. Iyer makes a compelling case that there are several "faces" or aspects to the Dalai Lama -- the public face, where His Holiness talks about a secular ethics of kindness that anyone can follow, while encouraging people to delve into their own religious traditions rather than necessarily "converting" to Buddhism. Iyer also writes compellingly - -but not in an "oh, wow, isn't this exotic" way -- about the more private face of the Dalai Lama's beliefs -- his reliance on a mystical seer, for example, and some of the more esoteric spiritual practices.

"A Buddhist talks not so much about good and evil as about ignorance and awakening; in that sense, he brings all responsibility inward, so as not to waste time blaming people outside himself, but to see how he can better understand (and therefore solve) the problem within" (50)

Insists that Chinese translation of his title as "living Buddha" is totally wrong; he is simply "someone worthy of respect," a "teacher." (51).

important to keep talking, even to one's enemies, because one day they will wake up (72)

Buddhism differs in saying that "the architect, the administrator, the guardian of this whole body is not Allah or God or the swarm of deities of the Hindu pantheon; it is a network of which we are a part (that is a part of us). That is why the Buddha did not speak of 'praying ceaselessly,' as Saint Paul did, but of 'striving ceaselessly.' Buddhists do not (or need not) seek solutions from outside themselves, but merely awakening within; the minute we come to see that our destinies or well-being are all mutually dependent, they say, the rest naturally follows" (87).

Loveliest quotes: "In the end, I thought, it was probably not so different from what you find in any relationship, even with those you have known for an entire lifetime: at the core there is likely to be a mystery" (139).

"In fact, Christianity works from very uncertain beginnings toward a specific end (redemption and a life with God); Buddhism starts with something very specific (the Buddha and the reality of suffering he saw) and moves toward an always uncertain future" (155).

"All of us live in two worlds at once, the Dalai Lama writes in his book on Buddhism and its correspondences with science, The Universe in a Single Atom. There is the world of 'conventional reality,' in which each of us scuttles along with his own particular direction and character and destiny, and beneath all that, there is the realm of 'ultimate reality,' in which the chaos of human affairs is seen from a different perspective, behind the surface, an dall the individual lives and movements become nothing more than nodes within an all-encompassing network" (226)

He writes of how, the day after winning the Nobel Prize, the Dalai Lama spoke of how he often felt he could never do enough, that his efforts were so small. "He told me that it was 'up to us poor humans to make the effort,' one step at a time, and again, as if invoking hte final words of the Buddha, he spoke of 'constant effort, tireless effort, pursuing clear goals with sincere effort" (254).

"Life, as some Buddhists have it, is a 'joyful participation in a world of sorrows.'" (8)

"Buddhism, more than any philosophy I am aware of, has no interest in 'dreamlands,' or in the places in our head taht stand in the way of our engagement with what is happening right now; the Buddha, after all, took his very name and meaning from teh sense of being wide-awake in the middle of confusion and ignorance. The philosophy that arose out of his teaching affirms no absolute paradise of the kind hymned in Christian or in Islamic texts; for those in teh Dalai Lama's tradition, Nirvana itself is just a way station, a state of mind, really, that the true bodhisattva seens not as an endpoint but a viewpoint, to carry back with [them] into the clamor of the world" (40).

[Angie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a thoroughly enjoyable book. Of course, this is coming from someone who spent a year in Dharamsala and charted out a map of McLeod Ganj in the margins when I realized that he was going to tell us where each of the main roads go to.

I felt as if Iyer's observations, while trivial, improved the readability of the work and possibly served as a way to draw the ordinary reader into the environment that is Dharamsala. (As someone who's been there, I felt that most of his observations were pretty spot-on, but as always, surface-level; you wouldn't try to illustrate and understand the dynamics of relationships between Tibetan women and foreign women in a book meant to be read by a "general reader.")

Iyer is aware of his position as an outsider, and while I appreciate that, I also feel that it lends negatively to the book. The book tends to sway away from being solely about HHDL, which I personally appreciated but others might not. I've picked one passage from the book where I felt that Iyer was both acknowledging his presence as an outsider while taking to heart what the other speaker (in this case, Lhasang Tsering) was saying, and questioning it the way everyone should.

"If a mouse is cornered by a cat, he has to make a run for it." (No, I thought, as if I were on the other side of the hill: the cat may get distracted, he may get picked up and taken away, he might spot a more tempting target--there are many reasons why the mouse might be well advised to bide his time.) The Middle Way policy of the Dalai Lama's government in exile, Lhasang implied, was just a way of shaking hands with the devil. ("In politics," he might have cited President John Adams as saying, "the middle way is none at all.")

I think it was really poignant that Iyer mentioned the quotation from John Adams; it strengthens Lhasang's argument while Iyer admits that he is not sure where he stands on the issue of the Middle Way policy. This specific kind of interaction is one that it is needed on the platform of Tibetan Studies currently; where we realize our natures as outsiders and yet bring to the cause something that might not be in translation yet; we should assist, and then argue. This is why I believe education is key.

I wrote a lot in my book. A lot of "oh really?" and "hmm", further things to ponder on. I feel like this was the perfect book for me, a stepping stone in the transition between a casual observer into someone who can draw some conclusions on something that exists outside herself. (I would also like to mention that Iyer's usage of the female third-person pronoun throughout the piece really meant a lot to me, although I still wonder what his reasoning was for its usage. Are women more likely to pick up a book on His Holiness the Dalai Lama?)

All in all, a great book that I will be turning to a lot in the future, and a great necessity for any library on His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Don't read it expecting to walk away knowing everything; HHDL is just a human, after all, and it's going to take more than one book to even begin to understand his philosophy and world view.

[Bookmarks Magazine]

In his study of the Dalai Lama, Iyer offers a rich historical context made stronger by his own diligent research and vast knowledge of global politics (not to mention a personal connection). Given the current unrest between Tibet and China, Iyer's book takes on additional weight by lending urgency to the story of an otherwise little understood

[Suzy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was hoping to be inspired by this book, but I wasn't. My dumb. For one thing, the DL didn't write the book, a journalist wrote a book about him. This is the second journalist to quite disappoint me with his book writing. (Is this akin to great stand-up comedians making lousy movies? The slightly-wrong genre?) Iyer's writing was an obstacle, to be honest. it is fraught with parenthetical and em-dashed remarks that were often longer than the sentence in which they were imbedded. Needless to say, it was hard to make sense of these, which occurred at least one to a page and more in the first 3/4 of the book. I spent a lot of time rereading, which is not usually necessary for me. I did notice that the last couple of chapters were easier to read and did not have this problem. I don't know if he wrote them at a different time or what.
In addition, the book and individual chapters seemed to me to lack overall structure. It meandered. I did learn some interesting things about Tibetan Buddhism as distinct from the philosophy espoused by the DL, and Iyer explains the reasons for the differences deftly.
I was hoping to gain more insight into the DL, but I don't feel that I really did. Perhaps he is just inherently enigmatic--duh--, so that even this man who spent many years with him didn't have many new insights to offer. This book might be a good one for people who knew little about the DL, the history of Tibet or Buddhism.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unsuccessful attempt to be both memoir and biography, with some hero-worship thrown in. It's not a complete waste of time, but the writing is often self-indulgent and self-congratulatory. (I loved the moment that went something like: "I heard the Dalai Lama won the Nobel Prize so I dropped in to personally congratulate him. I figured he wouldn't mind.")

The book was predictably biased, and also shirked challenging questions like, "The Tibetans think you're a god. So, are you?" The writer (like the Dalai Lama, some might say) likes to keep having it both ways.

[Brayden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Iyer is a travel writer who has a personal relationship with the Dalai Lama dating back to his youth. In this book Ayer provides an insider's view of the Dalai Lama's life and mind. I didn't know much about the man before reading the book, and so I was surprised by a lot of what I read. Iyer points out that the Dalai Lama on the surface seems to be full of contradictions (for example, he values science and logic but he also believes in prophecy and spiritual manifestations). Iyer helps the reader see how these contradictions are resolved by his particular worldview. As a religious person, I found the Dalai Lama's beliefs to be intriguing and was excited to see so many similarities between his religious beliefs and my own.

Each chapter begins with a quote, summarizing some aspect of the Dalai Lama's beliefs. I found the quote preceding the chapter on his political life to be particularly interesting:
It is the only thing we can do...I see no alternative, each of us must turn inward and destroy in himself all that he thinks he ought to destroy in others.

This represents well the Dalai Lama's views on how to create political change. All change, he believes, begins by initiating change in one's self. We cannot expect the institutions of the world to change, for those who oppress to alter their ways, or for governments to cease injustices until we are willing to address the injustices within ourselves. This is the message the Dalai Lama brings to the world. It is interesting that the quote comes from a Jewish woman (Etty Hillesum) who was about to meet her death at Auschwitz. Is it a coincidence that this same belief about change is held by two people who are/were impotent to control their own political destiny and who come from oppressed people? I wonder if the same belief could be cultivated among the people of a powerful nation like our own?\

Iyer is an excellent writer, making this a quick and fascinating read. Definitely worth anyone's time.

[Preethi · Rating 5 out of 5]

What do you write in a book about one of the most famous people in the world about whom already exists a ton of literature?
This challenge was taken very well by Iyer (who is now one of my favorite authors, his command on the language to express the most complicated in the most beautiful and simplest of words is something to be experienced and re-read), who gave a remarkably personal account of his times with HHH, the Dalai Lama over a few years. He also did a wonderful job by covering the multiple angles that come up with HHH - his impact on global perception of Buddhism, his politics, the principles he practices because of who he is as an incarnation and what he believes from future and also how the future would look like without him on it.

For me, as I continued to marvel at the brilliance of Iyer's work and his dedication to maintain an equal tone throughout the book spanning it's years, it was also about the insight into the Dalai Lama that I appreciated more.

Over the years, I've noticed myself as growing up to be someone who has been self-challenging any belief in any organized form of religions and questioning the deifying any one person, it is a journey I have wanted to take to know about this teacher, and the first one, Gautama, The Buddha. Coz, in this set of teachings, it has always been about the teaching and not the teacher or the person behind it.
And for this learning and knowledge, this book has been tremendous.

Read this book if you want to read a rational approach to Tibetan Buddhism, the Dalai Lama and to Buddhism in general. Should you pick up the book, I request that you keep an open mind and the know-it-all-ness aside and read this for the joy of learning - you'll appreciate and assimilate the book and it's content way more that way.

[Ann Mcelligott · Rating 4 out of 5]

The selection for my book group, I was delighted to learn more about the Dalai Lama. Pico Iyer has known the Dalai Lama for more than 30 years, having been introduced through his father, an Oxford don who was born in India. Iyer, an essay, novelist, and travel writer, has spent considerable time in Dharamsala,India, home to the Dalai Lama has his government in exile and to many Tibetan exiles. Further he has attended many of the Dalai Lama's visits around the world.

Although biographical details to emerge, the book is in no way a biography. Rather the life and work of the Dalai Lama is presented under three headings: In Public, In Private, and In Practice. The chapter titles are: The Conundrum, The Fairy Tale, The Icon, The Philosopher, The Mystery, The Monk, The Globalist, The Politician, The Future. Often the topic of the chapter is presented through describing a particular event in which the Dalai Lama participated. This nonlinear way of examining the Dalai Lama leads to repetition and a disjointed picture. In some ways the book seems to be a collection of essays turned into chapters of a book. The first chapter, The Conundrum, sets a theme that works throughout the book. The Dalai Lama is a monk who is also a world figure. He is a politician who must be a philosopher. And he is the most revered person to the Tibetans while being a icon to the world. I am grateful to have gone on this journey with Iyer and to have met the many facets of the amazingly humble man who inspires both his own people and the world.

[Stop]

Read the STOP SMILING review of The Open Road:

We are not accustomed to thinking of our leaders as perennially jolly, which has at times proven to be a problem for the Dalai Lama. Though he is one of the world's wisest and certainly one of its most spiritual men, Pico Iyer reminds us that he sometimes sounds like he is promoting saccharine, feel-good truths — “bromides, as it may seem, that tell people no more than any Golden Rule or Boy Scout’s manual might.” In part, this is because he must regularly condense his 18 years of higher-level academic training in Buddhist metaphysics and dialectics into one-minute morsels suitable for audiences with no understanding of his philosophical background or his country’s complex history. He then appears in magazines and newscasts as an amalgam of scattered aphorisms delivered in blurb form. Journalists help perpetuate this impression by continuing to ask him inane questions, as if he were still a boy-king and not a renowned 72-year-old philosopher. This may just be a symptom of the style of the modern interview, in which the perplexingly simple question is a gambit for the surprisingly deep answer. But, as Iyer points out, “No one asks the Pope whether he has dreams of women, or what makes him angry.”

Read the complete STOP SMILING interview...

[Snap · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know where to start! I mentioned several times to Mr. Dragon that I never write in books ... just one of my *laws*, but I sure wanted to write in this one. Finally, after hearing me say this daily, Mr. D looked at me and said "write in the book"!!! So I did. There is just so much in it that I want to remember and look at again. Pico Iyer in this book "tried to be a general reader speaking to other general readers, and bringing little more than the curiosity and interest of a journalist who has never practiced Buddhism and knows little about it but is intrigued to see how it might expand the thinking or anyone, Buddhist and non-Buddhist alike." He looks at the paradoxes of the Dalai Lama's position -- religious leader, monk and the head of state of a government in exile. He looks at the Dalai Lama's work and ideas as a politician, scientist, philosopher and the idea of globalism. There's just to much to talk about and review. One of the delights of this book comes at the end under the section READING ... book after book on Tibet, Buddhism, the life of the Dalai Lama ... a lifetime of reading. Iyer first met the Dalai Lama through his father some 30 years ago and has published five books on modern globalism.

[Anita · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pico Iyer's journalistic training comes through strongly in this book. The book reads more like a linked-set of NY Times magazine articles rather than a cohesive book with a story to tell.

Iyer is also more focused on the tragic political situation in Tibet rather than on Tibetan Buddhism and that shows plainly throughout. This isn't a bad thing but it wasn't what I expected exactly.

I also thought that since Iyer and his family have had a long-standing personal relationship with the XIVth Dalai Lama (for the past 40+ years) that there would be more personal depth of the Dalai Lama and his character and person. Instead, it seems like a journalist interviewing the Dalai Lama at various intervals and linking the articles together. It doesn't read like a biography to me truly.

Pet peeve: Iyer refers repeatedly to the XIVth Dalai Lama as "the Tibetan". I would have preferred anything other than that!

It was worth reading but not a favorite; on the positive side it has made me interested in reading other books about the Dalai Lama.

[MJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

This has been a slow read for me - I kept going off and reading other things, then coming back to it. Not because it was difficult, but just so dense with ideas. It is a sort of biography by Pico Iyer of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama and attempts to explain his delicate position as leader of a country that virtually no longers exists, having been systematically destroyed by the Chinese since he escaped it at the age of 14. It explores his philosophies, his attempts to bring his people into a modern age and embrace democracy, and especially to prepare them for the time when he will no longer be with them. He is in the hopeless position of while being embraced by a sort of celebrity by the world as he tries to bring attention to his country's demise. His life in exile is a demonstration of the core Buddhist principles. It's hard to explain how inspirational it is - you'll just have to read it!

[Julie Capell · Rating 2 out of 5]

Considering its subject, this book was surprisingly light on content. Despite the author's longtime personal relationship with the Dalai Lama and his family, I did not really feel that he was able to give the reader an in-depth, personal view of the man behind the title. More emphasis is placed on the Lama's place as political leader of his people and his struggle to find a "middle way" as the Chinese destroy Tibet and the Tibetan people lose more and more of their culture, living in exile. But somehow, the book failed to move me or engage me in the plight of the Tibetan people. This is the first book I have ever read about Tibet, Buddhism, or the Dalai Lama, and as such it was a very gentle entry into the topic. The list of further reading suggested by the author at the end of the book is almost more interesting than the book itself.

[Lynette · Rating 3 out of 5]

The subject of this book was interesting, but for me the author failed to make the most of it. He says at the end that before writing a book he reads everything he can find on the subject, implying that he likes to cover new territory rather than repeating what has already been written. Maybe I should have started elsewhere, because I know very little about Buddhism or the Dalai Lama. Still, the book did not captivate me at all. I kept hoping the author would engage me, but that hope was in vain. This author was new to me and I will not be reading more of him. I do, however, want to learn more about his subject. His bibliography looks like it could lead me to more books which would be more satisfying.

[Drew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting. One of the factors that made Tibet so vulnerable to being taken over by China was its chosen isolation from the rest of the world. This book relates how the Dalai Lama, understanding that, has chosen to take Tibetan Buddhism to the world. It also relates his practice of Buddhism and non-violence against China has caused turmoil within the Tibetan exile community. Plus, imagine the difficulty when so many Tibetans believe he is God. Also, there is a mystical part of Tibetan Buddhism that is not shared openly by the Dalai Lama. Thought provoking and broadening.

[Francesca Marciano · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read. Clever, insightful, objective. Pico Iyer writes beautifully,but this book is so much more than good writing : it will take you on un unexpected journey, deep into the contradictions and the obstacles that The Fourteenth Dalai Lama has to navigate in order to bridge tradition with the future, secularism with mysticism.

[Tricia · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's so so. The author has a certain arrogance about him that I'm not so into. Also, it seems lacking coherence and jumps around from thoughts, memories, philosophies, judgements with no clear direction. There are however little nuggets of "intersting thoughts".

[Jeannie Zeck · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pico Iyer knows the Dalai Lama personally and has traveled with him over the years. I learned so much about Buddhism, Buddhist monks, and the Dalai Lama. I took my time reading this book: it is a meditation in itself and inspired me to increase the seriousness of my own practice.

[Elissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

didn't love it, but i liked some parts of it. maybe because i read it 5 pages at a time right before bed.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoy this book. It's written by someone in observance of the Dalai Lama, but his insight is there. I need to make more time to meditate and finish this book.

[Mimi · Rating 4 out of 5]

very well-written biography of the Dalai lama, with discussions of his political life vs spiritual, highlighting the tragedy that is Tibet.

[Valerie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book definitely opened my eyes to a lot of the complicating factors in Dharmsala and Tibetan culture, but the writing was disorganized and a bit of a slog.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating insight into a man and his lost country that I knew little about before - plenty of extra reading likely to come from this one (helped by the long list of related books included at the end).

[Strivetoengage · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s difficult to give a star rating to a non-fiction book, especially one that has as much breadth of subject matter as The Open Road: The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama by Pico Iyer. It seems that Pico Iyer is well situated to write a biography of the Dalai Lama, considering that his father met the Dalai Lama in 1960 when he had just arrived in India and Pico has had audiences with him regularly over many years. Pico has obviously read all of the material that has already been written about the 14th Dalai Lama and Tibet and took care to find a unique angle from which to write this book. Pico is sensitive and non-judging, yet not overly in awe of the Dalai Lama and shows him to us as a man, nor is Pico a Buddhist which allows him to give an outsiders perspective to the rituals of Buddhism, particularly Tibetan Buddhism. I certainly feel enriched from having read this book and I trust Pico to have represented an honest case. Having said that, I found Pico Iyer’s writing style a little cumbersome. He uses too many asides embedded within a sentence and I frequently had to re-read the same sentence 2-3 times to unpick his meaning amongst the extraneous information.

Iyer avoids condemning Chinese policies and occupation in Tibet. He interviews some Tibetan firebrands and relates their feelings of impotence at being told to practice non-violence and one gets the sense that he fears an outbreak of violence and guerrilla warfare after the Dalai Lama dies and no-one has the authority to restrain these exasperated and displaced people, living double lives in exile and never fitting in anywhere. For example Lhasang, a former member of the Tibetan government in exile had this exchange with Pico:

‘If a man is raping a girl and she cries out for help, you don’t wait and pray for peace…The Chinese are playing for time…and we are playing into their hands. What is the good of extending a hand if the other person does not? Nothing. It takes two to shake hands.’

‘But if you extend no hand at all…you’ve given up. Nothing can be achieved.’

‘You can use that hand as a fist!’

After spending the majority of the book avoiding discussing the future of Tibet, right at the end he indicates what he really thinks:

There are no grounds for hope regarding Tibet as we know it: things just keep getting worse and worse, to the point where Tibet is almost a place of memory now. China has no real reason for wishing to give up an area it knows as the “Western Treasure House” … the moral pressure of other governments has achieved nothing. Tibetans are in no position to resist a force that sees itself as the center of the earth and everywhere else as a mere satellite. There is simply no reason to imagine that an old Tibet could magically return.

In Patrick French’s biography Younghusband: The Last Great Imperial Adventurer (which is a very interesting read if you haven’t read it yet), French relates these Tibetan proverbs which are as pertinent to Tibet now under Chinese occupation as they were during the time of Younghusband’s invasion of Tibet on behalf of England in 1903.

When you have seen a scorpion, you look on the frog as divine.

If you have two enemies, you should make one of them your friend

Poison can sometimes serve as a medicine

French goes on to say that Tibet was forced by the British to capitulate:

The Tibetan Government signed the Treaty of Lhasa… as helpless as if the sky had hit the earth

As a final aside, in the same year Iyer spoke to the Dalai Lama about being awarded the Nobel peace prize and had a glitzy birthday party full of celebrities. Iyer talked more about celebrities than his intimate conversation with the Dalai Lama and upon reflection said this pearl:

Everyone we meet we tend to cast in the light of our own tiny concerns.

I first posted this review on my blog: https://strivetoengage.wordpress.com/...

[aryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

p64: Don’t expect the world to fit its needs to accommodate you; work your needs around the circumstances of the world.

p96: … “Middle Way,” in deference to the Buddha’s guiding principle of walking along the road at the center, not veering toward extremes.

p155: Indeed, even though all monks are committed to the same task, deep down – as doctors or hospital construction workers are – the details of their practice are as different as their wildly divergent times and cultures. A Christian generally longs to be rooted in the home he’s found in God; the Buddhist, more concerned with uncovering potential, is more interested in experiments and inquiries, always pushing deeper. In fact, Christianity works from very uncertain beginnings toward a specific end (redemption and a life with God); Buddhism starts with something very specific (the Buddha and the reality of suffering he saw) and moves toward an always uncertain future (even after one has attained Nirvana). The image of the open road speaks for a perpetual being.

p200: I climb up to a meditation center between the pines one bright morning and see that the day’s schedule, neatly typed out, offers “Breakfast / Impermanence and Death / Suffering / Selflessness / Dinner / Equanimity.”

p254-255: Then, as we were walking out of the room, he went back and turned off the light. It’s such a small thing, he said, it hardly makes a difference at all. And yet nothing is lost in the doing of it, and maybe a little good can come of it, if more and more people remember this small gesture in more and more rooms. […]
Six thousand days or so after that morning, when he came back to Japan, I thought about that simple gesture of turning off the light. Every one of those six thousand days, it seemed to me, I had had some revelation, encountered some wisdom, scribbled down sentences I’d read or come up with myself about the meaning of the universe, the way to lead a better life, the essence of the soul, the unreality of the soul. I had had more lightning flashes and moments of illumination than I could count in the next six thousand years. And yet now, on this bright autumn morning, I could remember not a one of them, except the simple, practical task of turning off the light. Not enlightenment, not universal charity, not the Golden Rule or the wisdom of the ages: just something I could do several times a day.