A spokesperson for His Holiness the Dalai Lama said that His Holiness has canceled trips to Mexico and the Dominican Republic because he is feeling unwell. His doctors have diagnosed exhaustion. He will spend the next three weeks resting and getting medical tests.

The 72-year-old "simple monk" has taken rest breaks before. In 2006 he was "grounded" by his doctors for a month.

This past Sunday an interfaith service was held in the Denver convention center, prior to the Democratic National Convention. The service opened with a reading of the Metta Sutta by University of Colorado student Kathryn Ida.

The Metta Sutta is a favorite for reading at interfaith services, partly because it is beautiful and partly because it doesn't require knowledge of Buddhist doctrines to understand.

Yesterday I emerged from the Manhattan subways in Times Square in time to see a big "Free Tibet" march on 42nd Street. There were monks, ethnic Tibetans, and native New Yorkers of all forms. My daughter took these two photos of the march with her camera phone. You can't see it in the photos, but the march stretched for several blocks.

If anyone knows specifically which group organized the march, let me know.

Americans are backing away from mixing religion and politics, according to a new poll from the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. For the first time in more than a decade, a majority of the American public thinks that religious institutions should stay out of political affairs.

Most of the shift in opinion has been among conservatives. "Four years ago, just 30% of conservatives believed that churches and other houses of worship should stay out of politics." Pew says. "Today, 50% of conservatives express this view." Conservative opinion on this matter is now much closer to liberal and moderate opinion, which has not much changed.

The biggest shift of opinion has been among social conservatives. The very people who were most keenly interested in using government to impose their values -- opposing same-sex marriage, for example -- are the same group showing the biggest shift in opinion in favor of keeping religion out of politics. Any ideas why that might be true?