On his 80th birthday, His Holiness Dalai Lama sat down in an interview with TIME in Anaheim on Monday.
The Buddhist Monk talked about meeting Pope Francis, the secret of maintaining spiritual youth, and his advice on how to easily get over a broken heart.
When he was asked about having the chance of meeting the Pope, the Tibetan Spiritual Leader said "not yet." But given the right time, he would like to talk about their common care for the environment. "Recently he also has been showing genuine concern about the environment. Wonderful. A spiritual leader should speak - these are global issues. So I admire [him]."
The monk also shared his secret on keeping his youth despite physically aging and spending time with young children. Old people may no longer have the beauty of the youth, but smiling, playing, making jokes, and telling stories invite children.
"I think that is very good," he said. "Old people play, mixing with young children, the old people themselves feel something fresh."
He also added that feeling "bitter" for not being able to do things they used to do when they were younger is "silly" and "unrealistic." He encourages taking care of and sharing experiences with children, since those are among the things the youth cannot do.
In mending a broken heart, Dalai Lama suggests practicing celibacy can actually help. "If you look at the nature of strong attachment, underlying that strong attachment is a clinging, grasping, and if you look at other reactive emotions that arise, actually it is strong attachment that underpins hatred, anger, jealousy, and so on," he said.
"So if you somehow are able to look at this and recognize that a large part of the reception is perception, that could lose some of this strong grasping."
The monk added that extreme desire for sex "always creates some trouble."
