The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World

by Dalai Lama XIV

I remembered the Archbishop wondering if the person who had cut him off in traffic might be rushing to the hospital because his wife was giving birth or because a loved one was dying. “I have sometimes said to people,” the Archbishop said, “when you are stuck in a traffic jam, you can deal with it in one of two ways. You can let the frustration really eat you up. Or you can look around at the other drivers and see that one might have a wife who has pancreatic cancer. It doesn’t matter if you don’t know exactly what they might have, but you know they are all suffering with worries and fears because they are human. And you can lift them up and bless them. You can say, Please, God, give each one of them what they need. “The very fact of not thinking about your