Contradictions and favorite passages

1) The writer, Gelareh Asayesh feels conflicted because at times she likes to wear the hijab but other times she is burdened by it. A hijab is a head covering worn by the women of Muslim culture. She says that at times she values wearing it, but other times she likes the freedom to take it off so she can be cooler and have better hair. She shares this with us so others that do not wear this can see that yes it can be annoying, but it also can be a symbolic passion for beliefs.
An example of this love/hate relationship that I could share is my friendship with an old friend. We had been friends for many years, but I always knew that I couldn't actually trust her. With other friends I was able to share all of my feelings, but with her I had to limit what I could say so it would not be repeated. I guess you could say she liked to gossip. While I deeply valued her friendship and company, I also knew that she was not an ideal friend to have.


2) My favorite passage was by the Dalai Lama, on page 643 in my book, paragraph 2. To summarize what this paragraph is saying, the Dalai Lama is telling us that we should not spend so much time only valuing material and technological things. He says that in order to remain balance, we must have both spiritual and material development at the same time. Personally, I like the idea of having to be spiritually balanced before you can take on a world of people after material things-almost to help keep yourself in check.
The Dalai Lama was chosen at age 2 to be the next Dalia Lama, and began his schooling to take over at age 6. Each Dalai Lama is supposed to be the reincarnated Avalokitesvara, and this started in 1578. He leads the country of Tibet spiritually through Buddhism.
Currently he is in exile, because his religious and political beliefs for Tibet are different than that of the Chinese communist rulers.

The issue of Tibet mainly started in 1949, when communist China invaded parts of free Tibet. Tibet had already gained it's freedom from China in 1913. By 1951, China completely invaded, and began taking control, despite Tibets protests. Many bulidings and monestaries were destroyed, along with political rights and freedom of religion. More importantly, many were murdered, inlcuding women and children. They threatened the Dalia Lama, which in return forced him to flea to India and attempt to give spiritual guidence from there.



http://http://www.dalailama.com/biography/a-brief-biography