Ik ben normaal gezien in het geheel niet aan dergelijke rondzendbrieven, maar de Dalai Lama is niet verkeerd:

1. Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
2. When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.
3. Follow the three Rs: Respect for self, respect for others and responsibility for all your actions.
4. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.
5. Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
6. Don’t let a little dispute injure a great friendship.
7. When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
8. Spend some time alone every day.
9. Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.
10. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
11. Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you’ll be able to enjoy it a second time.
12. A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.
13. In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don’t bring up the past.
14. Share your knowledge. It’s a way to achieve immortality.
15. Be gentle with the earth.
16. Once a year, go some place you’ve never been before.
17. Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.
18. Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.
19. Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.

update: guilty as charged. Ik had gezocht bij Google, maar niet bij Snopes. I’ve been had. ’t Was niet de Dalai Lama, maar wel:

These instructions for life (and 26 others that were mysteriously dropped from the list since it hit the ‘net around 1999), were originally given by Jackson Brown and H. Jackson Brown, Jr. in their publication Life’s Little Instruction Book. So, first we drop the authors’ name from it. Then, thinking that it really needs a convincing source to make them more believable (and, thus, more “forward-able”), somebody attributes it to a well-known authority.

Meer details bij Snopes zelf.

Nu, in mijn verdediging: ik vond de gedachte dat de Dalai Lama Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon zou zeggen alleen al de moeite waard om het fijn te vinden. En de dead giveaway “FORWARD THIS MANTRA E-MAIL TO AT LEAST 5 PEOPLE ANDYOUR LIFE WILL IMPROVE” stond er bij Everyday Matters niet bij, al had hij het blijkbaar wel per mail ontvangen.

[mag ik trouwens zeggen dat ik het bijzonder zwak vind om een entry weg te halen omdat blijkt dat je verkeerd was?]