One day during an interview, the Dalai Lama had just raised one arm Straight above his head to make a point (he can be very animated when he speaks)—suddenly the windows in the room rattled with a distant loud explosion. Everyone in the room except the Dalai Lama was startled, and we all jumped in our seats and laughed nervously.

     The Dalai Lama smiled at us. At the sound of the explosion, he had paused with his arm raised, his finger pointed straight. Neither arm nor finger wavered as he waited patiently for us to settle down; then he continued as though nothing had happened. He appeared to have no involuntary reaction at all. His utter stillness when everyone else flinched is the physical aspect of the lack of attachment he has developed through meditation.

     Experimentation by Western researchers has confirmed that meditation masters can control such involuntary physiological responses and that most of us do not have this control. While detachment developed through mental training may seem absent, or spiritual, it is fundamental to who the Dalai Lama is. A lifetime of meditation has changed not just how he physically responds to situation; it has changed how he sees the world and how he behaves within it. It would take several years for me to appreciate how his lack of attachment, born of intense meditation practice, has shaped his view of history.

During blocks of interviews scattered over the year, we outlined the essence
of thousands of years of Tibetan history and myth. We began with distant Tibetan myths concerning the origins of the first Tibetans and then moved through the development of the Tibetan Empire in the eighth century, when Tibet stretched from what is now southwestern China to northern India. We discovered, at length, Tibet's greatest yogis, meditation masters, and ordinary Tibetans and covered the foundation of the institution of the Dalai Lama and the nation's giant monasteries. Next were the years of Mongol and Manchu domination and finally the Chinese invasion of 1950 and the Dalai Lama's meetings with Mao Tse-tung, just before the Dalai Lama fled the country in 1959. It was the entirety of Tibetan history, from the origins of Tibetans to the present day. As the scope