If you’ve spent any time on the web, you’ve almost certainly run across the “lolcats” of the website, I Can Has Cheezburger. (The Horse is not ashamed to admit it’s a favorite time-waster and smile-putter-onner.)

A full investigation of the site (no small feat) turns up an interesting fact: some lolcats are, it seems, “Buddha-curious.” Dig:

And then there’s this one sent by reader Luz G., featuring HHDL. (“This is is the first picture of HH Dalai Lama that I’ve seen where he is not smiling.”) Don’t get it, frankly, but what the hey. Thanks, Luz!

Okay, maybe you don’t understand the world of the lolcats. Helpfully, this new appreciation from Salon.com can set you straight on the indisputable connection between lolcats and the “tragedy of the human condition.”