How important is willpower to your happiness? And does food have anything to do with it? Most of us would agree that it requires willpower to graduate from school, learn a skill, or practice anything till you get really good at it. Self-fulfilment is unlikely to just happen spontaneously. It is more likely to...
Could there be a greater honour than have the Dalai Lama’s Cat herself contribute the Foreword to my new book, The Astral Traveler’s Handbook & Other Tales? If there is, dear reader, I have yet to be told about it. Below, fresh from the Himalayas, the musings of the world’s most realised feline, His Holiness’s...
Picture the following scene, dear reader. It is a busy morning at the Himalaya Book Café. With less than an hour before lunch service, I am sitting on my customary spot on magazine rack, nostrils flaring as I try to identify the delightful aromas wafting from the kitchen, where the Dragpa brothers are working their...
After publishing Buddhism for Busy People in 2004 and subsequent non-fiction books, I sometimes found myself talking to people who were voracious readers, and had a keen interest in the subjects I wrote about. They hadn’t read my books – and they didn’t plan to. The reason wasn’t personal, and was quite simple: they didn’t...
I am sometimes asked by some readers to explain the meaning behind the title of my third Dalai Lama’s Cat book, The Power of Meow. Just as the second title, The Art of Purring is a play on The Art of Happiness – a book closely associated with His Holiness – this third title is a similarly...
Prologue I am ashamed to have to begin this book with a confession. A revelation so embarrassing I’d much rather not be making it. Living with the Dalai Lama, surrounded by monks at Namgyal Monastery, and constantly encountering the most revered meditation masters in Tibetan Buddhism, one would assume that among my many admirable qualities...
In my book, The Power of Meow, the Dalai Lama’s Cat begins with an embarrassing confession: “Living with the Dalai Lama, surrounded by monks at Namgyal Monastery, and constantly encountering the most revered meditation masters in Tibetan Buddhism, one would assume that among my many admirable qualities I am an accomplished meditator. Alas, dear reader, I...
Feel like a quick taster of The Dalai Lama’s Cat and The Power of Meow? Please click below for my 4 minute reading of the Prologue. If you’d like to make sure you’re among the first to get your paws on the book, I highly recommend that you pre-order from your local bookstore, or...
Prologue The idea came about one sunny Himalaya morning. There I was, lying in my usual spot on the broad, first floor windowsill, the perfect vantage from which to maintain maximum surveillance with minimum effort, as His Holiness was bringing a private audience to a close. I’m far too discreet to mention who the audience...
In a previous blog I mentioned some of the references in The Dalai Lama’s Cat to one of my all time favourite novels, The Great Gatsby (see: http://davidmichie.com/blog/2013/12/03/the-dalai-lamas-dog/) In this blog I’d like to share a little snippet about the exchanges between the Dalai Lama’s Cat (HHC) and Mambo, her love interest. Mambo is a...
