Manhattan

The Dalai Lama’s four-day New York City visit ends with an interfaith dialogue at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. The cathedral is home to 10 monks from South India’s Drepung Loseling Monastery, who created a Sand Mandala in honor of the Tibetan spiritual leader’s visit.

The colorful mandalas, which take hours of painstaking work to construct, are destroyed as a symbol of the Buddhist belief in the fleeting nature of the material life.

The Truth Commission on Conscience in War is a group of religious leaders and scholars who have joined together to discuss the theory of just war, international law and freedom of conscience during times of war.

The 70-member commission recently held a public hearing at Riverside Church, where soldiers spoke about their war experiences. The hearing, inspired by a documentary, “Soldiers of Conscience,” launched a six-month campaign that aims to spur discussion of issues of war and conscience.

There’s a long-running show on Broadway you can catch for free, in person – or on the radio.

“Live From Broadway,” which features interviews and performances by stage stars, tapes Wednesdays at noon and airs on Sirius XM Radio.

The show is housed at the Broadway Concierge and Ticket Center,  on Broadway between 46^th and 47^th streets, and draws an audience of about 100 folks a week. The center, which opened in September, 2008,  lets customers do everything from buy show tickets to make restaurant reservations to get tourist information in six languages.

Laudelina Velasquez likes to be prepared for her grandchildren’s weekend visits.

“I like to have food to give them,” she said in Spanish.

To get the corn flakes and other foods her grandchildren enjoy, Velasquez, 64, travels from the Bronx to a food pantry on the upper West Side once a month.