Letter to US Congressman

My very dear friend Dennis,
I was very happy to meet you and your wife and mother and to be able to chat during the recent dinner for His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Washington DC.

I would really like to invite you to visit my house when you come to Santa Cruz; please do. I will tell the Sangha here to receive and take care of you if I am not here. You are welcome to meditate in my room, in which there are many holy objects, such as statues, stupas, and scriptures. You can also relax and have real Indian chai, or if you wish we can also serve you good Tibetan tea.

I would like to give you the contact details of my secretary, who is a Buddhist nun. Please contact her before you come so that she can make proper arrangements.

I hope to see you very soon. I will be here in Santa Cruz for another ten days, in retreat. Then I will be going to our Kopan Monastery in Nepal for our annual one-month course, which is a meditation retreat on the stages of the path to enlightenment. The first was in 1971 and it has been held annually ever since, attended by people from all over the world. After that I will go to India to teach in Bodhgaya at our center, Root Institute for Wisdom Culture, for a week, and then at the beginning of the year I will go to south India for fourteen days of very important teachings and initiations from His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

I would also like to invite you to come to our monastery if you are ever in Nepal. Kopan was the very first of our 152 worldwide centers and is where all the others came from. I think you would really enjoy the monastery and be very happy to see it. Of course, you are more than welcome to stay there but there is also a five-star hotel nearby in Boudhanath.

Also, if you like trekking, our Lawudo Retreat Center is not far from the Everest Base Camp. It’s about a half-hour helicopter ride from Kathmandu and then a two-day walk. People say this is where my previous incarnation lived. It is also a very important Padmasambhava holy place. This area is totally another world, much different from even Kathmandu. So, if you ever do decide to visit I can tell the people there to receive you. It is very high in the mountains and you’ll need a sleeping bag and so forth.

If there is anything that you want or if I can help you in any way, please let me know. Here I am sending this Potala palace and some other gifts for you to enjoy.

With much love and prayers...