‘On the other hand, some kinds of fears are our own mental creations. These fears may be based mainly on mental projection. For example, there are very childish fears,’ he laughed, ‘like when we were young and passed through a dark place, especially some of the dark rooms in the Potala, and became afraid – that was based completely on mental projection. Or, when I was young, the sweepers and people looking after me always warned me that there was an owl that caught young children and consumed them!’ The Dalai Lama laughed even harder. ‘And I really believed them!
