Dalai Lama Ss Quotations

When a person is in a miserable situation, then, yes, it is difficult to develop genuine compassion toward others. That's why I find it difficult to say to poor people, "Please have compassion toward millionaires." That's not easy.

The female biologically [has] more potential to show affection and compassion.

If you resort to violent methods because the other side has destroyed your monastery, for example, you then have lost not only your monastery, but also your special Buddhist practices of detachment, love, and compassion.

We must realize that it is best to focus on our oneness, to re emphasize what is the same about each of us rather than dwell on what is different.

There should be a spirit of dialogue. Whenever we see any disagreements, we must think how to solve them on the basis of recognition of oneness of the entire humanity. This is the modern reality.

In our own case, we don't consider the loss of a monastery or a monument the end of our entire way of life. If one monastery is destroyed, sometimes it happens.

One scientist had discussions about love and compassion. Usually, he felt irritation. After our meeting, for some months, anger never come.

Anger and hatred lead to fear; compassion and concern for others allow us to develop self-confidence, which breeds trust and friendship.

The greater the force of your compassion, the greeater your resilience in confronting hardships.

Compassion should be unbiased and based on the recognition that others have the right to happiness, just like you.

Certain beliefs must accompany every action: One should act without selfishness, cultivate compassion for all living things, and develop respect for others.

Women have the capacity to lead us to a more peaceful world with compassion, affection, and kindness.

Physically you are a human being, but mentally you are incomplete. Given that we have this physical human form, we must safeguard our mental capacity for judgment. For that, we cannot take out insurance; the insurance company is within: self-discipline, self-awareness, and a clear realization of the disadvantages of anger and the positive effects of kindness.

Our business is to be happy.

So long as space remains So long as sentient beings' Suffering remains I will remain In order to help, In order to serve.

A spoon cannot taste of the food it carries. Likewise, a foolish man cannot understand the wise man´s wisdom even if he associates with a sage.

World economies are always so tenuous and we are subject to so many losses in life, but a compassionate attitude is something we can always carry with us.

I really feel that some people neglect and overlook compassion because they associate it with religion. Of course, everyone is free to choose whether they pay religion any regard, but to neglect compassion is a mistake because it is the source of our own well-being.

It is lack of love for ourselves that inhibits our compassion toward others. If we make friends with ourselves, then there is no obstacle to opening our hearts and minds to others.

I truly believe that compassion provides the basis of human survival.

Compassion instills a sense of calm, inner strength, and a deep confidence and satisfaction

One can overcome the forces of negative emotions, like anger and hatred, by cultivating their counter-forces, like love and compassion.

There should be a balance between material and spiritual progress, a balance achieved through the principles based on love and compassion.

Happiness is a state of mind. With physical comforts if your mind is still in a state of confusion and agitation, it is not happiness. Happiness means calmness of mind.

Compassion and love is the source of external and internal peace and is also the root of racial survival.

Samsara-our conditioned existence in the perpetual cycle of habitual tendencies and nirvana - genuine freedom from such an existence- are nothing but different manifestations of a basic continuum. So this continuity of consciousness us always present. This is the meaning of tantra.

Through awareness, you get a certain attitude. That's the way, you see, to achieve more peaceful, more compassion, more friendship through that way.

In our concern for others, we worry less about ourselves. When we worry less about ourselves an experience of our own suffering is less intense. What does this tell us? Firstly, because our every action has a universal dimension, a potential impact on others' happiness, ethics are necessary as a means to ensure that we do not harm others. Secondly, it tells us that genuine happiness consists in those spiritual qualities of love, compassion, patience, tolerance and forgiveness and so on. For it is these which provide both for our happiness and others' happiness.

The Laws of Reasoning consist of the ground, the path, and the result. ...Suffering is in the mind. How we perceive happiness determines our suffering or not.

A disciplined mind leads to happiness, and an undisciplined mind leads to suffering.

The essence of any religion is good heart. Sometimes I call love and compassion a universal religion. This is my religion.

Happiness doesn't always come from a pursuit. Sometimes it comes when we least expect it.

unless the direction of science is guided by a consciously ethical motivation, especially compassion, its effects may fail to bring benefit. They may indeed cause great harm.

Wherever I go meeting the public... spreading a message of human values, spreading a message of harmony, is the most important thing.

The real troublemakers are anger, jealousy, impatience, and hatred. With them, problems cannot be solved. Though we may have temporary success, ultimately our hatred or anger will create futher difficulties. Anger makes for swift solutions. Yet, when we face problems with compassion, sincerity, and good motivation, our solutions may take longer, but ultimately they are better.

Once you encourage the thought of compassion in your mind, once it becomes active, then your attitude towards others changes automatically.

I don't think human affection and compassion are just religious concerns; they're indispensable factors in our day-to-day lives.

When there is too much stress or worry, look within.

Ultimately, the reason why love and compassion bring the greatest happiness is simply that our nature cherishes them above all else. The need for love lies at the very foundation of human existence.

The most important thing in life is human affection. Without it one cannot achieve genuine happiness. And if we want a happier life, a happier family, happier neighbours or a happier nation, the key is inner quality. Even if the five billion human beings that inhabit the earth become millionaires, without inner development there cannot be peace or any lasting happiness.

Kindness is the key to peace and harmony in family life.

True compassion is universal in scope. It is accompanied by a feeling of responsibility.

All People and things are interdependent. The world has become so small that no nation can solve its problems alone, in isolation from others. That is why I believe we must all cultivate a sense of responsibility based on love and compassion for each other.

Ultimately, the decision to save the environment must come from the human heart. The key point is a call for a genuine sense of universal responsibility that is based on love, compassion and clear awareness.

My main concern is meeting with public because my main commitment, main interest is promotion of human value, human affection, compassion and religious harmony.

Only through kindness and love can peace of mind be achieved.

Forming a new world religion is difficult and not particularly desirable. However, in that love is essential to all religions, one could speak of the universal religion of love.

The purpose of our life needs to be positive. We weren't born with the purpose of causing trouble, harming others. For our life to be of value, I think we must develop basic good human qualities - warmth, kindness, compassion. Then our life becomes meaningful and more peaceful - happier.

On every level of human life, compassion is the key thing.

I believe the ultimate aim of all human beings is to obtain happiness and a sense of fulfillment... I have always stressed the importance of combining both the mental and material approach to achieving happiness for humankind.

We need to employ a secular approach to ethics, secular in the Indian sense of respecting all religious traditions and even the views of non-believers in an unbiased way. Secular ethics rooted in scientific findings, common experience and common sense can easily be introduced into the secular education system. If we can do that there is a real prospect of making this 21st century an era of peace and compassion.

People assume that happiness stems from collecting things outside of yourself, whereas true happiness stems from removing things from inside of yourself

There are a number of qualities which are important for mental peace, but from the little experience I have, I believe that one of the most important factors is human compassion and affection: a sense of caring.

I think the person who has had more experience of hardships can stand more firmly in the face of problems than the person who has never experienced suffering. From this angle then, some suffering can be a good lesson for life.

Just as compassion is the wish that all sentient beings be free of suffering, loving-kindness is the wish that all may enjoy happiness.

Peace must first be developed within an individual. And I believe that love, compassion, and altruism are the fundamental basis for peace. Once these qualities are developed within an individual, he or she is then able to create an atmosphere of peace and harmony. This atmosphere can be expanded and extended from the individual to his family, from the family to the community and eventually to the whole world.

The essence of all religions is love, compassion, and tolerance. Kindness is my true religion. The clear proof of a person's love of God is if that person genuinely shows love to fellow human beings.

It does not matter whether you are a theist or atheist, what matters is sincerity, forgiveness, and compassion.

In our concern for others, we worry less about ourselves.

Our every action has a universal dimension, a potential impact on others' happiness.

An important distinction can be made between religion and spirituality. Religion [is] concerned with faith in the claims to salvation of one faith tradition... Spirituality is concerned with qualities of the human spirit, love and compassion, patience, tolerance, forgiveness, contentment, a sense of responsibility, a sense of harmony, that bring happiness both to self.

For the moment a lot of attention is given to economic concerns, and these problems at hand easily eclipse all others. But the remedies proposed for these problems all come out of outmoded ways of thinking... The remedy? Compassion. The logical feeling that we find in ourselves if we search deeply enough that has to be exercised toward all other living creatures.

The lessons we have begun to learn make me hopeful, that human beings will become friendlier, more harmonious, less harmful. Compassion and the seeds of peace will be able to flourish. At the same time, every individual is responsible to help guide our global family in the right direction. Good wishes alone are not enough; we have to take responsibility. Large human movements spring from individual human initiatives

Firstly, as a Buddhist monk, I hold that violence is not good. Secondly, I am a firm believer in the Gandian ethic of passive resistance. And thirdly, in reality, violence is not our strength.

For a person who cherishes compassion and love, the practice of tolerance is essential, and for that, and enemy is indispinsable. So we should be grateful to our enemies, for it is they who can best help us to develop a tranquil mind.

The egotistical ambition to always want to earn more money harms both the company and the individual himself. That is the biggest weakness of many managers - the financial crisis has proven this.

Inner values like friendship, trust, honesty and compassion are much more reliable than money - they always bring happiness and strength.

A genuine smile touches something fundamental in us: our natural appreciation of kindness.

When we develop a right attitude of compassion and gratitude, we take a giant step towards solving our personal and international problems

Compassion seems to be the greatest power.

His Holiness Pope John Paul II was a determined and deeply spiritual minded person for whom I had great respect and admiration. His experience in Poland, then a communist country, and my own difficulties with communists, gave us an immediate common ground

Tolerance and patience should not be read as signs of weakness. They are signs of strength.

Meet hostility and suspicion with kindness. Helping others out of love is always the best option.

Overcoming negative tendencies and enhancing positive potential are the very essence of the spiritual path.

The wiser course is to think of others when pursuing our own happiness.

More compassionate mind, more sense of concern for other's well-being, is source of happiness.

I always believed in love, compassion, and a sense of universal respect. Every human being has that potential.

Through training there is knowledge. You can produce compassion, love, forgiveness. you can change yourself.

It is crucial that we realize the great value of human existence, the opportunity and the potential that our brief lives afford us. It is only as humans that we have the possibility of implementing changes in our lives.

Contemplating the suffering which is unbearable to us, and is unbearable to others, too, can produce awake mind, which arises from the compassion that wishes to free all living beings from suffering.

As human beings, we are only able to survive in dependence upon the co-operation, help and kindness of other fellow humans.

What is my religion? Simple. Kindness.

It is not enough to belong to a religion. You also have to put it into practice. Religion is like medicine. You have to ingest it to combat the illness.

To combat hatred directed toward a person, a Buddhist cultivates loving kindness toward that person.

All beings want to live in peace and happiness, undisturbed. Therefore the concept of human rights is universal.

As human beings we each have a responsibility to care for humanity. Expressing concern for others brings inner strength and deep satisfaction. As social animals, human beings need friendship, but friendship doesn't come from wealth and power, but from showing compassion and concern for others.

Compassion is something we can count on. Even if we face economic problems and our fortunes decline, we can still share our compassion with our fellow human beings. National and global economies are subject to many ups and downs, but through them all we can retain a compassionate attitude that will carry us through.

It seems that for some people the idea of compassion entails a complete disregard for or even a sacrifice of their own interests. This is not the case. In fact, you first of all have to have a wish to be happy yourself - if you don't love yourself like that, how can you love others?

We need a sense of the oneness of the 7 billion human beings alive today. When I meet people, I don't think about being different from them, about being Tibetan, Buddhist or even the Dalai Lama. I only think about being a human being. We all share the potential for positive and negative emotions, yet one of our special qualities is our human mind, our intelligence. If we use it well we'll be successful and happy.

The greatest antidote to insecurity & sense of fear is compassion. It brings one back to the basis of one's inner strength.

To reduce destructive emotions we need to strengthen constructive emotions. For example, to counter anger we cultivate love and compassion.

For material progress and physical well being, peace of mind is of utmost importance.

Scientists are discovering that while anger and hatred eat into our immune system, warm-heartedness and compassion are good for our health.

Looking at various means of developing compassion, I think empathy is an important factor: the ability to appreciate others' suffering.

Depression seems to be related to fear, anger and frustration. When you're in a bad mood, even if you meet with your friends, you don't take pleasure in their company. But when you're in a good mood, even if things go wrong, you can cope with them without difficulty. This is why putting yourself in a good mood, making a point of developing a sense of loving kindness gives you greater inner strength.

Once we have a firm practice of compassion our state of mind becomes stronger which leads to inner peace, giving rise to self-confidence, which reduces fear. This makes for constructive members of the community. Self-centredness on the other hand leads to distance, suspicion, mistrust and loneliness, with unhappiness as the result.

Genuine happiness and compassion go hand in hand.

The key point is kindness. With kindness one will have inner peace. Through inner peace, world peace can one day be a reality.

The more you nurture a feeling of loving kindness, the happier and calmer you will be.

The practicing of loving kindness toward one's enemy is the ultimate test of one's own spiritual attainment.