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The Dalai Lama, right, is shown with B. Alan Wallace, president of The Santa Barbara Institute for the Interdisciplinary Study of Consciousness, left, during a conference called "Investigating the Mind: Exchanges between Buddhism and the Biobehavioral Sciences on How the Mind Works," at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Saturday, Sept. 13, 2003, in Cambridge, Mass. (AP Photo/Lisa Poole)

Can concentration be controlled? Can attention be practiced and perfected? These are questions that are of increasing interest today to scientists, but which Buddhist monks have been exploring for thousands of years.

For centuries, millions of Tibetans have made the arduous pilgrimage to the holy mountain of Kailas, walking 35 miles around its base in a single day to wash away the sins of the world in a symbolic re-enactment of the wheel of life.

The Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibet, said that despite intense opposition from mainland China, he will continue to visit Taiwan, although he has no intention to talk about political issues during his trips.

Tibetan Buddhist Lama Kunga Tenzin encounters Watson, a white handed Gibbon ape, during a traditional Tibetan blessing for the animals as well as the newly opened Parrot Jungle Island in Miami.

The Dalai Lama (R) bends down to watch as technician Choe Dolma (C) explains a machine sequencing canine DNA during his visit to the Whitehead Institute/MIT Center for Genome Research September 13, 2003 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader is participating in a two-day conference on science, spirituality and human biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology while in the Boston area. Photo by Jim Bourg

Chinese environmentalists are hoping to promote Tibetan antelope protection by recommending the endangered animal as the mascot for the 2008 Olympic Games to be held in Beijing.

Nobel Peace Prize winner and beloved Buddhist leader, the Dalai Lama, was greeted by hundreds of supporters Friday in several Massachusetts communities.

The Dalai Lama gestures as he speaks during a news conference Friday, Sept. 12, 2003, in Boston, on the scientific study of the brain during Buddhist meditation. The Tibetan spiritual leader said that Western scientists and practitioners of Buddhism have much to learn from each other. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)

Hundreds of people bearing prayer wheels, incense, flags and flowers greeted the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan head of state, as he arrived in Massachusetts Friday to pray with fellow Buddhists, meet with scientists and address devotees.