The Dalai Lama's Cat & Other Intrigues

I heard him before I saw him. Sprawled, on an overcast morning, across the filing cabinet in the Executive Assistants’ office, there came an explosive, baritone guffaw from the stairwell, followed by further reverberations that were drawing closer. I recognised their source immediately.

I wrote a post a couple of months ago called I am Nature that resonated strongly with many readers judging by the wonderfully engaged and insightful comments you shared. In it I described what’s labelled the “biophilia effect” – that sense of connection we have to all living things - a connection that, for many of us, seems to deepen the older we get. On the subject of getting older, I received my first email this week from someone asking if David Michie was alive or had passed on.

The importance of the role that the elephant carers play cannot be overestimated. It is simply life and death for these little orphans. Their dedication is worthy of huge respect. Courtesty of Wild is Life Trust and Zimbabwe Elephant Nursery. Of all Buddha’s teachings, his most distinctive is that reality is as much our mind’s projection as anything exte…

I am happy to be sharing two items with you in this post. The first is a video produced by Meltingpot, the amazing conference to which I was invited in Ostrava, Czech Republic last year. While there, I was asked into a studio to answer questions about how I came to meditation and Buddhism. There are some quite perso…

(An injured bushbaby who has made a good recovery) An important motivation for writing this newsletter is to help raise funds for good causes. My vision is for The Dalai Lama’s Cat & Other Intrigues to do more than only touch people’s hearts and minds, but also to create change that matters. Those of you with paying subscriptions are helping support four charities - two active with Buddhist causes in the Himalayas and two animal rescue charities in my homeland of Zimbabwe.

Have you noticed, dear reader, that some people exude a sensation of perpetual and important busyness? Dozing on the top shelf of the magazine rack at The Himalaya Book Café one afternoon, from the first moment that I clapped eyes on the man in the nearby banquette I had the most powerful awareness of high-powered …

Dear Tricycle Reader, This is David Michie here, author of The Dalai Lama’s Cat series, as well as other fiction and non-fiction Dharma books. Thank you for clicking through! As you may know, Substack is a digital platform for writers. I started weekly posts a year ago with two clear objectives. The first is to share the wisdom and insights I have learned from my lamas, in posts that are accessible, enjoyable and uplifting.

Compassion is one of the qualities that draws people to Buddhism. The wish to free others from suffering, is how the texts define it. Compassion is a heartfelt outflowing of loving kindness, a phrase constantly used by the Dalai Lama to describe the essence of Buddhist teachings. Perhaps it’s no surprise that the Tibetan Buddhist group I belong to here in Perth, Australia, as well as those I know in other parts of the world, attract many people from the caring professions.

Yes, dear readers, we have arrived at that most exciting moment of the publishing process: choosing a cover for the next book! The new Dalai Lama’s Cat book will be published in November 2023. It is the sixth in the series, can you believe? The title for this next one is The Claw of Attraction - as with previous books, a play on a popular concept as well as a variety of non-fiction titles in the ‘Mind, Body, Spirit’ genre.

What gives you joy, dear reader? I am not asking about some lofty state of meditative accomplishment, only an everyday delight. One of the kinds I see relished daily at The Himalaya Book Café. The expression on the face of a diner as she bites into a croissant fresh from the oven, the flaky, buttery exterior giving way to soft, warm deliciousness. My own thrill of anticipation lowering my face to a saucer of diced chicken liver. Is anything more truly bliss-inducing than this?