Open Minds

"In the mid 1980's when Tibet’s Dalai Lama first began coming to the United States to speak he was being questioned by a group of reporters and the issue of homosexuality came up. In answer to their question the Dalai Lama began to repeat Buddhist condemnations of same sex relationships and then, right in the middle of a sentence, he stopped, thought for a moment and then began speaking again, 'If the two people have taken no vows of chastity, and neither is harmed, why should it not be acceptable?'

In one sentence he reversed a thousand years of Buddhist teaching and tradition. This is such an important thing to be able to do. He was able to see that an old prejudice which may have served to strengthen society in one age was a threat to spiritual health, to justice, to kindness in this age. " -Dr. Roger Ray