January 11, 2008 -- Friday afternoon

Reading Secret of the Vajra World, The Tantric Buddhism of Tibet, by Reginald A. Ray. He told me how the different schools of Buddhism could be divided into three "vehicles": Hinayana, Mahayana and Tantrayana--hinayana, he said, is about the personal; mahayana is about the world; and tantrayana he couldn't put into words--something in between. He has been reading the book for a couple of months, slowly--English is not his first language, it's Nepalese.

His favorite book--The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, by Sogyal Rinpoche. It's about how we should live our lives and what happens after we die. We go through different phases. The big lesson he'd pass on from it--be compassionate.

If he were to write a book? He wouldn't. He'd put his energy towards helping poor kids, and the old and the sick.

The bags behind him are fair trade, hand made by people in Kathmandu, Nepal, and sold at an oasis of calm in the Haight called Dreams of Kathmandu.