The Claw of Attraction: Read the Prologue here!
New book by The Dalai Lama's Cat
I am delighted that The Dalai Lama’s Cat & The Claw of Attraction was published on 10 November 2023! This is the sixth book in the series.
To give you a flavor of what the books is about, I am sharing the Prologue. Enjoy!
How can I describe the vehicle that was driving slowly across the courtyard of Namgyal Monastery? Like none I had ever seen before, dear reader. Extremely long – three times the length of a regular sedan car – it was a great, gleaming hulk, somewhat military in appearance, but colored hot pink. Like a spaceship from another planet.
Plenty of heads were turning. These included the usual mix of tourists who’d come to photograph the splendor of the monastery temple, set against the soaring, ice-capped Himalayas. Monks making their way to and from their nearby residence. Traders at their gate-side kiosks, selling all manner of food and drink to passers-by. All of them stopped and gaped at a vehicle that seemed designed to grab attention, as it slowly rolled to a halt.
No movement was evident behind the darkly tinted windows. Then a door opened and there was an eruption of laughter, as ten glamorous young women came tottering out in high heels, arms extended as every step was accompanied by a flurry of selfies. Group selfies. Individual selfies. Selfies juxtaposing the temple roof and looming mountains, at just the right angle to showcase a sparkling piece of merchandise – a handbag, bracelet or some make-up item – alongside their brightly beaming faces.
“This is all so spiritual!” they cooed as they glanced around, relishing the attention of onlookers.
After the initial jolt of surprise, things in the courtyard began returning to normal. Namgyal Monastery may be tucked far away in the Himalaya foothills, but being the home of the Dalai Lama, people here are quite used to extraordinary visitors. The most recent arrivals were taking it in turns to be photographed at the front of the limo, its dazzling fuchsia color in giddying contrast to the muted gold of the temple and icy transcendence of the mountain peaks.
Not everyone, however, was indifferent to the new visitors. Returning from a meeting at the monastery, the moment His Holiness caught sight of the pink apparition, he pointed towards it and burst out laughing. Accompanied by two bodyguards and a huddle of monks, he wasn’t visible to onlookers as he steered his group towards the vehicle, curious to inspect it more closely. I was following in his footsteps, a short distance behind.
Approaching from the back of the vehicle, His Holiness reached out with childlike curiosity to tap the gleaming bodywork with his knuckles. To study the glistening reflective glass of the tinted windows. On the far side of the car from the young women, he caught sight of them gathering, their backs towards him, preparing for a group photo. A mischievous twinkle appeared on his face.
Edging further up on the other side of the car, the Dalai Lama stepped out from behind, just as the chauffeur, acting as photographer, counted down: “Three! Two! One!”. It was a classic photobomb, dear reader! The chauffeur was the first to react with laughter and amazement. The young women were turning. Recognizing who it was, they screeched with excitement before clamoring towards him.
His Holiness’s bodyguards – huge humorless warriors, always on the lookout for a security breach – had soon closed around him, wanting to verify the identity of the visitors. The fashionably dressed occupants of the hot pink carriage were quick to brag that they were none other than India’s Top Ten Social Influencers Under 30, with a combined online audience of over one hundred million followers. They were on a three-day tour of the Himalayas.
“Social influencers?” mused the Dalai Lama, meeting their exultant eyes as soon as his security detail stepped aside. They were zeroing in on this unanticipated and truly sensational photo op.
A tall dark-eyed beauty in a crimson dress was waving her gold clutch bag excitedly. “You know,” she wanted to make sure he understood, “Instagram. Digital media.”
“Yes, yes,” said the Dalai Lama. “Lots of friends like this,” he mimicked, scrolling on an imaginary device.
“You see!” They were enraptured.
“Tell me,” His Holiness reached out to gather the hand of crimson girl on his left side, and that of a young woman in a lemon-yellow sari on his right. “What do you use your influence among this hundred million people to do?”
“To sell stuff!” Crimson girl laughed, brandishing her clutch bag, showing off the distinctive interlinked gold letters of a well-known luxury brand.
A woman directly in front of the Dalai Lama in emerald green gazed at him, as if the two of them already had a deep, shared understanding and knew better than this. “I help women discover their sacred sexuality,” she brought a hand to her heart. “To attract love into their lives.”
If His Holiness was in any way surprised by this intimate revelation, he gave no sign of it.
To his right, yellow sari woman was determined to have her say. “I show people …” she raised her voice shrilly above the rising clamor, “that they can be whatever they want to be!”
The women were vying for the Dalai Lama’s attention like the raucous teenagers that some of them still were. Crowing about how influential they were. Seeking advice. Wishing to take selfies to share with their millions of followers – as fast as possible! The noise level quickly rising, during the hubbub one of them cried out, “Let’s ask him how to manifest stuff!” as if he wasn’t even there.
There was a new surge of gleeful babble before a feisty young woman in shimmering sapphire shoved emerald-green girl forcefully to one side as she stepped before him, brought her palms theatrically to her forehead and bowed very deeply. “Your Spiritual Highness, please teach us about the law of attraction.”
The noise level receded as he regarded her with benevolent amusement. “The law of attraction?”
“You must know it!” One of them was calling from the ruck.
“How to manifest things in your life,” sapphire girl was explaining. “By affirmations. Getting the universe on board to create abundance.”
“Oh, I see!” His Holiness chuckled, exchanging a glance with Oliver, one of his Executive Assistants who was accompanying him. The two sometimes discussed the curious ways in which Eastern ideas were packaged as pseudo-spiritual commodities, by Westerners seeking to make their fortunes.
The Dalai Lama met sapphire girl’s blazing eyes with a compassionate expression.
“In Buddhism, we say that reality is all mind’s creation.”
“Yes, yes!” she nodded fervently.
“The way we are experiencing things right now is only arising because of our minds,” he was looking at the young women’s attentive faces. “And each of us is experiencing a somewhat different reality.”
“So how can we experience a reality with the new diamante sunglasses …” crimson girl named a designer label, “which are so hard to come by?”
“Or the perfect boyfriend?” Emerald-green was pushing back.
“Or your ten millionth online follower?” Yellow sari wanted to know.
The Dalai Lama regarded their flushed, animated faces, his forehead wrinkling. “This materialist approach,” he nodded, “seeking to change what you believe to be entirely outside you. It has many problems. For example, why must you constantly postpone your happiness?”
India’s Top Ten Social Influencers Under 30 were taken aback by this question. Staring at him, their eyes filled with consternation. Postponing happiness was something they most definitely wanted no part of.
“For example, if our happiness depends on having the new diamante sunglasses,” he chuckled. “Or the perfect boyfriend,” he beamed from the crimson girl to the emerald-green one. “Or having ten million followers,” he nodded at yellow sari. “What do we do until then? If we are constantly yearning for material things that we don’t have, then our happiness is always around the corner. Or at the top of the next mountain. Why do you not wish to be happy here and now? Without needing anything else. Happy as I am?”
As always when he spoke, His Holiness communicated with more than words alone, so that he also conveyed an experience of what the words meant – with inescapable significance. His audience was quite mesmerized.
“Moreover,” His Holiness held up his forefinger emphatically. “How long do we get happiness from the new sunglasses? The new partner? The tenth millionth follower? A few weeks? Perhaps months? And then,” he smiled at emerald-green girl, “no more honeymoon! Perhaps there are new sunglasses from another designer and the old ones are out of date?”
Something was shifting among His Holiness’s audience. It was as if he were giving voice to a truth they had already experienced, but hadn’t been able – or perhaps willing – to face. In just a few sentences, he had quietly demolished the entire basis of a reality they’d never questioned. Gone was all the giggling and the fake bravado. The swagger and the contrived poses. Now they were just a group of young women, open and unaffected, hanging on his every word.
“Influence is power,” he continued, his expression thoughtful. “And power can be very dangerous if not used carefully. For example, we may create envy among others by parading the things we have.” He was studiously avoiding looking at any of them in particular. “If our followers feel they are missing out on the good fortune we have, we may cause them pain. This is unfortunate. It is the opposite of the true cause of happiness, which is to give happiness to others. And it is a karmic cause for us to suffer the same kind of pain in the future.”
Some of the women were looking at the ground. Tears were welling in the eyes of others. But the young woman in the yellow sari wasn’t so easily swayed. “Are you saying we should give up on our hopes and dreams?” she asked, voice choked with emotion.
“No, my dear,” the Dalai Lama turned to her, shaking his head decisively, “that’s not what I am saying. Worldly ambitions, especially when you are young, can be motivating. Useful. But we must see them for what they are. It is wonderful to enjoy mundane pleasures when we have them,” he nodded towards the stretch pink vehicle with a chortle. “But ultimately, such things are not really so important, so meaningful.” As he shrugged, a sense of non-attachment to worldly things felt as palpable as the mountain breeze that was gusting across the courtyard. And his words as self-evident. “Better,” he observed, “to be ambitious in other ways.”
The women began to huddle, seeking comfort in one another from the challenging shift in perspective delivered so gently but with such undeniable consequence. Emerald-green and sapphire girls, looking down, met each other’s eyes and reached out to one another. The others followed, unguided and spontaneous. In the next few moments, they formed a circle of joined hands, connecting to each other – and to His Holiness.
“In what way should we be ambitious?” Crimson girl asked.
The Dalai Lama smiled. “We should all wish, very much, to develop our hearts and minds,” he told them, the radiance of his expression lifting their faces so that, one by one, each of them was meeting his eyes again.
“When we see that all other sentient beings are truly just like us, that we all wish for happiness and we all want to avoid suffering, then our own love and compassion quite naturally arise. Sometimes,” he tilted his head musingly, “when we open our hearts, the most remarkable surprises can occur.”
With His Holiness’s words resonating, I decided that this was my moment. Slipping among the legs of several monks standing behind him, I rubbed myself against his legs, before taking my place in the middle of the circle of young women, looking up at them.
“The Dalai Lama’s Cat!” Several gasped in amazement.
“She really exists!”
“Absolutely beautiful!”
I took in their youthful, wonderstruck faces, recognizing that whatever luxuries they had known as India’s Top Ten Social Influencers Under 30, whatever incredible extravagances they had experienced, none of it compared to this simple moment, here and now, standing in the courtyard of Namgyal Monastery with the Dalai Lama – and the Dalai Lama’s Cat.
Across the circle, there was a question that sapphire girl just had to ask. “If the law of attraction isn’t about getting things, or relationships, what is it to attract?”
His Holiness was nodding. “It is to attract the inner qualities we need for transformation. Virtues such as equanimity, authentic loving kindness, wisdom. When we train our minds correctly, we abandon the tiny view we usually have of ourselves as mere bags of bones seeking this thing or that, and become aware that our real destiny is as fully enlightened beings.”
The young women beheld him transfixed. Awe-struck by his pronouncement. And yet at the same time – perhaps because of his presence – the alternative ideal of themselves as awakened bodhisattvas seemed not only desirable, but achievable too.
“Where to begin?” Crimson girl asked ardently.
“Are there any Buddhist secrets?” Sapphire girl wanted to know.
“We begin,” the Dalai Lama spoke clearly, “when we have a strong wish to turn away from constant dissatisfaction. When we recognize the limits of worldly activity. On that basis,” he looked over at sapphire girl, “we engage in the practices of bodhichitta and shunyata. When these are perfected, our job is done.”
The truth of his words was as radiant and all-embracing as the charge that surged through the circle. For a few moments, the power of his inspiration caught them all up in a state of transcendence as real as the courtyard where they stood, the temple and the towering mountains in the distance – even the bright, pink limo nearby.
Reaching my front paws before me, I stretched out in a luxuriant sun salutation. Given my advanced years, it was a creakier version than when I was younger. And because my life had become somewhat more sedentary, my talons were longer and more pronounced as they extended from my paws.
“Those claws!” exclaimed sapphire girl.
“The claw of attraction!” chimed yellow sari and everyone burst out laughing.
“Never forget this teaching,” His Holiness twinkled. “About the claw of attraction!”
Bodyguards were stepping between him and the young women on either side, slipping their hands apart with the smoothness of practice, and guiding the Dalai Lama to his next appointment.
“That was …” Crimson girl was shaking her head, moments after he had gone. “There are no words.”
“I’ll never be the same!” declared emerald-green effusively.
For the longest time they stood in uncustomary silence, trying to absorb what had just happened. Then, fully stretched, I began following in His Holiness’s steps.
And as I left, I heard yellow sari observe ruefully, “We didn’t even get selfies!”
The Dalai Lama’s Cat & The Claw of Attraction is available in paperback and Kindle from Amazon, and in Nook, Apple, Kobo and other e-book formats. Click the following links for the book:
USA Amazon paperback / USA Kindle
UK Amazon paperback / UK Kindle
Australia paperback and Kindle (Publication date in Australia is 14 November)
Apple, Nook, Kobo and other e-book formats
I am scheduled to record the audio book in December, for release early in 2024.
If you enjoyed the Prologue and would like to read more of my work, please do consider becoming a free or paying subscriber. Click the button below:
I'm really enjoying the book! I wish I had gotten a photo this morning. I was laying in bed, deep into Chapter 7 when Fluffy, wanting to curl up on my chest where the book rested, put a paw over the top trying to pull the book away from me. The image was just like the paw on the cover! How's that for the claw of attraction? 😹