Madison, Wisconsin and New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, 16 May 2013 - On his last morning at Deer Park, Madison, as the early sun caught the new leaves on the trees and peacock calls rang through the woods behind the temple and Kalachakra Pavilion, His Holiness met privately with a group of Chinese and afterwards with a group of Tibetan students studying in the USA.

Portland, Oregon, USA, 12 May 2013 - Before leaving Portland, His Holiness the Dalai Lama paid a visit to the Northwest Tibetan Association (NWTCA) and spoke to about 1000 people, among them 70 Mongolians. The sky was overcast and a light drizzle was falling, which local people described as more typical of Portland than the bright weather of the past few days.

Portland, Oregon, USA, 10 May 2013 - Maitripa College is a Tibetan Buddhist College founded in 2005 in Portland, Oregon. Since 2008, it has been able to award degrees and today His Holiness the Dalai Lama was the special guest during such a commencement ceremony. The sunlit streets outside were filled with well-wishers who waved and called out to His Holiness as he was met at the door by founding President Yangsi Rinpoche. Escorted briskly around the college, he was shown the various facilities before entering the Jokhang or main hall where he viewed the sacred images and paid his respects before taking his seat. Oregon Office of Degree Authorization representative Jennifer Diallo gave a short welcoming talk in which she introduced Maitripa College and explained the criteria for proper authorization of degrees.

The Eight Laws Relating to the Vicissitude of Life (Pali: “Labho alabho, Ayaso yaso, Ninda pasansa cha, Sukhancha dukkhan, Ethe anichcha manujesu dhamma,Asassatha vipparinama dhamma.”) Profit & loss, fame & anonymity, humiliation & honor, happiness & sorrow are called the  ’Eight Laws Relating to the Vicissitude of Life’.

College Park, Maryland, USA, 7 May 2013 - Just before landing at Dulles Airport at the end of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s long flight from India yesterday, the pilot warned of heavy cloud cover over the Washington area. Today, the steady rain that fell as His Holiness drove to the Comcast Center of the University of Maryland to give the annual Anwar Sadat Lecture for Peace deterred none of the audience of 15,000 from attending. They gave him a rousing welcome when he walked onto the stage escorted by University of Maryland President, Wallace Loh, Dr Elahe Omidyar Mir-Djalali, founder of the Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute and Dr Jehan Sadat, widow of the late Egyptian President and founder of the Anwar Sadat Lecture for Peace in his memory.

“Just as a candle cannot burn without fire, men cannot live without a spiritual life.”

It's hardly unusual for mid-career professionals to take time off to study management. Having had some real world exposure, an MBA usually helps put things in perspective. It's the same logic that Keisuke Matsumoto used when he decided to enrol for a management degree at the Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad in 2010.

Mind occupies the pre-eminent place in Buddhism, for everything that one says or does first arises in the mind as a thought. To have a well-trained mind is indeed to possess a treasure. When a person trains the mind, turns inward to examine and cleanse his own mind, he will find therein a vast storehouse of happiness. Real happiness is a quality of the mind which has to be sought and found in the mind.