--- title: Dalai Lama Gives Prayer on Senate Floor description: In the Tibetan spiritual leader's first time addressing the chamber, he recalled one of his favorites to deliver the opening prayer on the Senate floor: "Speak or act with a pure mind, and happiness will follow you like a shadow that never leaves" canonical: https://time.com/14056/dalai-lama-senate-prayer/ author: Alex Rogers article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-03-06T15:22:01.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T06:37:10.549Z article:section: Politics og:title: Dalai Lama Gives Prayer on Senate Floor og:description: In the Tibetan spiritual leader's first time addressing the chamber, he recalled one of his favorites to deliver the opening prayer on the Senate floor: "Speak or act with a pure mind, and happiness will follow you like a shadow that never leaves" og:url: https://time.com/14056/dalai-lama-senate-prayer/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt976a9aeba6e4ab38/6986843206f2c1ffca32dbab/dalai-lama.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1500 og:image:height: 844 og:image:alt: Dalai Lama, John Boehner, Nacy Pelosi og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Dalai Lama Gives Prayer on Senate Floor twitter:description: In the Tibetan spiritual leader's first time addressing the chamber, he recalled one of his favorites to deliver the opening prayer on the Senate floor: "Speak or act with a pure mind, and happiness will follow you like a shadow that never leaves" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt976a9aeba6e4ab38/6986843206f2c1ffca32dbab/dalai-lama.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Dalai Lama Gives Prayer on Senate Floor > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Alex Rogers](https://time.com/author/alex-rogers/) ## Alex Rogers Mar 6, 2014 3:22 PM UTC  Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama meets with House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of Calif., on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, March 6, 2014\. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak) Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama meets with House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of Calif., on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, March 6, 2014\. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak) Charles Dharapak—AP by [Alex Rogers](https://time.com/author/alex-rogers/) ## Alex Rogers Mar 6, 2014 3:22 PM UTC The Dalai Lama delivered the opening prayer on the Senate floor Thursday morning, the first time the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader spoke in the Senate. See the unofficial English transcript of his prayer below. --- > “” --- After the prayer, the Dalai Lama watched on as senators recited the pledge of allegiance. “I know I speak for the entire Senate family when I express our gratitude for the prayer in the Senate and his words of encouragement and his blessing,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/14056/dalai-lama-senate-prayer/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/14056/dalai-lama-senate-prayer/"},"headline":"Dalai Lama Gives Prayer on Senate Floor","datePublished":"2014-03-06T15:22:01.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T06:37:10.549Z","description":"In the Tibetan spiritual leader's first time addressing the chamber, he recalled one of his favorites to deliver the opening prayer on the Senate floor: \"Speak or act with a pure mind, and happiness will follow you like a shadow that never leaves\"","url":"https://time.com/14056/dalai-lama-senate-prayer/","keywords":["Senate","Congress","Religion","faith"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt976a9aeba6e4ab38/6986843206f2c1ffca32dbab/dalai-lama.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alex Rogers","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alex-rogers/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt976a9aeba6e4ab38/6986843206f2c1ffca32dbab/dalai-lama.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Dalai Lama, John Boehner, Nacy Pelosi","caption":"Dalai Lama, John Boehner, Nacy Pelosi","creditText":"Charles Dharapak—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/14056/dalai-lama-senate-prayer/","name":"Dalai Lama Gives Prayer on Senate Floor"}}]}] ```