April 19, 2004

Vancouver carpenter Karl Prevost, who once traveled to the seat of the Dalai Lama's government in exile in Dharamsala, India, lined up almost three hours early with his seven-year-old daughter, Emily, to see the renowned spiritual leader. "I thought it was wonderful. The energy was nice. But it was a long session for my daughter," said Prevost. Spinning around in circles outside the stadium, Emily said she couldn't understand what the Dalai Lama was talking about. But Prevost said that since Emily attends a Catholic church with her mother, it would be beneficial for his daughter to be exposed to a great Buddhist teacher so when she grows up "she can make her own choice" about religion.

CBC Vancouver (British Columbia Online News)

it would seem odd to give a child poison

as an option to cereal and milk

unless one were self ignorant of truth

one would hope when her maturity comes

she will choose the food over the poison

one, churchless, long ago told me

she sent her daughter to church

to enable her to make a wise choice

between faith and faithlessness

but children learn their parent's lives

and live what they have learned