"Strong roots..." reflections on a meeting with His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama

On August 9, 2025, I had a brief audience with His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Ladakh, India. As I stood waiting in line, holding my white kata scarf in both hands, I looked around. Hundreds of Tibetan pilgrims, dressed in traditional attire, stood or sat on every side, awaiting their turn. We were in a grove of tall poplar trees, which gave dappled shade, their leaves fluttering like green wings. From somewhere in the distance, I could hear chanting that waxed and waned, “Om mani padme hum,” over and over. In front of where his Holiness was sitting, there were people of all ages, some in wheelchairs, some standing with crutches, those with disabilities given the place of honor. The sense of devotion and anticipation was palpable and moved me to tears. “Maybe this is what the Kingdom of Heaven looks like,” I thought to myself.

I was now close to the top of the line, conscious that more than 600 or so others were waiting behind me and that I wouldn’t have much time. The “blessing line,” as it’s called, takes an hour. I did the math, “600 people in 60 minutes – that’s 10 seconds each!”

I had a copy of My Redwood Teacher booklet with me. “What could I say about it to His Holiness in 10 seconds?” I asked myself. It was almost my turn. A smiling monk stepped forward, took the kata from me, and placed it around my neck. He glanced at the booklet and told me to hold it in front of me as I presented it to His Holiness. I was ushered forward by another monk and found myself standing before him.

I was introduced by someone at his side as “Dr Michael.” Leaning forward, I explained that his words had inspired the booklet, and that it was about how we need to have strong roots in these difficult times, not just to survive but to thrive. He turned to his translator, who explained what I’d just said. As His Holiness turned back and looked at me, it was so clear he understood. “Strong roots,” he said, reaching out with his right hand and briefly touching my cheek before taking both my hands in his. I bowed in Namaste and took my leave.

I walked through the dappled shade, and the chanting, and the hundreds of expectant faces, knowing that I’d been seen, honored, blessed – beyond words.

The epigram in My Redwood Teacher is this from the Dalai Lama:

“A tree with strong roots can withstand the most violent storm, but it cannot grow roots just as the storm appears on the horizon.”

We need strong roots, of which there are three kinds:

Firstly, like Redwood trees, we need strong lateral roots. We need connection. While Redwoods don't have deep roots, they have powerful and long lateral roots that reach out up to eighty feet in every direction, intertwining and interweaving with the roots of other trees and growing under rocks. This gives them their extraordinary stability, allowing them to grow to be the tallest trees on the planet. I ask myself, “What are my lateral roots?” Another way of asking this is to inquire, “What are my healing connections? What are the chords of connection that bind me to myself, to others, to the phenomenal world, and to ultimate reality, whatever this means for me? And how can I better tend these?”

The second type of roots are the fine, deepest root threads that weave us into a web of interdependence. These remind us of what Thich Nhat Hanh calls “interbeing.” We are not the separate, solid entities we think we are. Contrary to popular opinion, we are more than what Alan Watts called “skin-encapsulated egos.” In our deeper identity, we are indivisible parts of a greater whole, drops of dew in a luminous, cosmic web. While, as we’ve seen, a Redwood’s strongest roots are its lateral roots, they also have countless, fine, thread-like rootlets that drop down and merge seamlessly with the mycorrhizal web that underlies the forest, connecting all the trees, plants, and fungi as a greater body, a reciprocal and dynamic whole. I ask myself, “What brings me into a felt sense of interdependence? Is it being in the presence of a beloved fellow human? Is it being in the presence of an other-than-human-being, a place, a tree, a mountain? Is it a particular practice, such as meditation or prayer? Is it listening to music or putting my hands in the soil as I tend the plants in my backyard?”

The third kind of roots are those that lead and help us to recognize and rest in open, loving, awake awareness. These roots are more difficult to describe, yet the most important of all. In our deepest nature, we’re already, and always have been, rooted in what our indigenous sisters and brothers call “The Great Mystery,” what Buddhists call our "Buddha Nature," what mystics call “the groundless ground.” These roots are a remembering that, in our deepest nature, we are one with the Great Mystery, that we are our Buddha Nature, that we and the groundless ground are one. Tibetan masters point this out as a quality of awareness that is already and always right here, right now, yet, as Niguma puts it, “so close it’s hard to see, so simple it’s hard to believe, so deep it’s impossible to fathom, and so noble we don’t feel worthy of it.” Being rooted in the luminous deep is an experience, not an idea or a metaphor. It’s a recognition, and then, a resting into. A knowing as we are known. A seeing without a seer. Krishnamurti says, “truth is a pathless land.” Yet, accessible and simple meditation practices that draw on the great mystical traditions can awaken our inner longing —a longing that has been dormant all along, a longing that takes us all the way home, and that’s only a moment of noticing away.

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Starting on Wednesday, October 15, at 09:00 am and 7:00 pm PST, and continuing each week at these times, I will offer regular teaching sessions on deep resilience, featuring a mix of didactic, experiential, and interactive teaching methods. These sessions will be conducted online, through the non-profit Mindful Heart Programs. To attend, go to the Mindful Heart Programs website (https://www.mindfulheartprograms.org/) and click the "meditate" button in the top right-hand corner of the landing page.

Also, starting on Thursday, October 16, at 10:00 am, I will be offering weekly meditations based on Lama John Makransky's Sustainable Compassion practices. Please check out his work and latest book (How Compassion Works) on: https://sustainablecompassion.org/

There is no charge for attending these sessions; however, donations are gratefully received by Mindful Hearts Programs (see the "Donate" button on the website's landing page).

And please purchase the booklet, which includes interactive QR code links. Any profit from the sales of the booklet will go to the scholarship fund of Mindful Heart Programs:

One reviewer wrote: "What a lovely little book, a little book that is big in every respect! A book for our times, written and illustrated from the heart, this should be on the curriculum of every primary school in the world." D.D., United Kingdom