Dalai Lama XIV Quotes & Sayings

Compassion is by nature gentle, peaceful, and soft, but it is very powerful. It is those who easily lose their patience who are insecure and unstable. Thus, to me, the arousal of anger is a direct sign of weakness. — Dalai Lama XIV

Is this what you have in mind,' I asked the Dalai Lama, 'when you say in teachings that the buddhas and bodhisattvas of the world are the most selfish beings of all, that by cultivating altruism they actually achieve ultimate happiness for themselves?'
Yes. That's wise selfish,' he replied. 'Helping others not means we do this at our own expense. Not like this. Buddhas and bodhisattvas, these people very wise. All their lives they only want one thing: to achieve ultimate happiness. How to do this? By cultivating compassion, by cultivating altruism. — Dalai Lama XIV

In my view, the combination of the first-person method with the third-person method offers the promise of a real advance in the scientific study of consciousness. — Dalai Lama XIV

Given that a significant percentage of children suffer from attention deficit problems in today's world, especially in more materially affluent societies, I am told that substantial efforts are being made to understand the faculty of attention and its causal dynamics. — Dalai Lama XIV

Live a life that transcends your own! — Dalai Lama XIV

the three factors that seem to have the greatest influence on increasing our happiness are our ability to reframe our situation more positively, our ability to experience gratitude, and our choice to be kind and generous. — Dalai Lama XIV

The specific areas of science that I have explored most over the years are subatomic physics, cosmology, and biology, including neuroscience and psychology. — Dalai Lama XIV

People should never sit alone for too long when they're crying. — Dalai Lama XIV

I maintain that Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, Judaism, Sikhism, Taoism, and Zoroastrianism all hold up love as an ideal, seek to benefit humanity through spiritual practice, and strive to make their followers better people. All religions teach moral precepts for the advancement of mind, body, speech, and action: do not lie or steal or take others' lives, and so on. Unselfishness is the common foundation laid down by all great spiritual teachers. — Dalai Lama XIV

Wherever you have friends that's your country, and wherever you receive love, that's your home. — Dalai Lama XIV

Great compassion is the root of altruistic action, the object of amazement to the world;there is no greater source of help and happiness. — Dalai Lama XIV

Anger or hatred is like a fisherman's hook. It is very important for us to ensure that we are not caught by it. — Dalai Lama XIV

The view that all mental processes are necessarily physical processes is a metaphysical assumption, not a scientific fact. — Dalai Lama XIV

Whether people are beautiful and friendly or unattractive and disruptive, ultimately they are human beings, just like oneself. Like oneself, they want happiness and do not want suffering. Furthermore, their right to overcome suffering and be happy is equal to one's own. — Dalai Lama XIV

Indeed, we find that almost all the mental and emotional suffering which is such a feature of modern living - including the sense of hopelessness, of loneliness, and so on - lessens the moment we begin to engage in actions motivated by concern for others. — Dalai Lama XIV

Share your knowledge. It's a way to achieve immortality. — Dalai Lama XIV

What we want is happiness, but if in pursuit of our own personal happiness we ignore the welfare of other sentient beings and only bully and deceive them, the results will be negative. — Dalai Lama XIV

The undisciplined mind is like an elephant. If left to blunder around out of control, it will wreak havoc. But the harm and suffering we encounter as a result of failing to restrain the negative impulses of mind far exceed the damage a rampaging elephant can cause. — Dalai Lama XIV

Every being wants happiness and does not want suffering. If we do not respect this fact, there will be more and more suffering on this planet. — Dalai Lama XIV

On the whole, I think the Darwinian theory of evolution, at least with the additional insights of modern genetics, gives us a fairly coherent account of the evolution of human life on earth. At the same time, I believe that karma can have a central role in understanding the origination of what Buddhism calls "sentience," through the media of energy and consciousness. — Dalai Lama XIV

When we feel love and kindness toward others, it not only makes others feel loved and cared for, but it helps us also to develop inner happiness and peace. — Dalai Lama XIV

After all, all human beings are the same - made up of flesh, bone, and blood. We all want happiness, and we all try to avoid suffering. We are the members of one single human family, and our arguments are born from secondary causes. Disputes, lies, and killings are useless. — Dalai Lama XIV

CIf you are honest, truthful, and transparent, people trust you. If people trust you, you have no grounds for fear, suspicion or jealousy. — Dalai Lama XIV

The smile is a very important feature of the human face. — Dalai Lama XIV

In identifying one's mental state as the prime factor in achieving happiness, of course that doesn't deny that our basic physical needs for food, clothing, and shelter must be met. But once these basic needs are met, the message is clear: we don't need more money, we don't need greater success or fame, we don't need the perfect body or even the perfect mate - right now, at this very moment, we have a mind, which is all the basic equipment we need to achieve complete happiness. In — Dalai Lama XIV

According to the Archbishop and the Dalai Lama, when we see how little we really need - love and connection - then all the getting and grasping that we thought was so essential to our well-being takes its rightful place and no longer becomes the focus or the obsession of our lives. We — Dalai Lama XIV

We all have minds that are capable of knowledge; therefore, if you work at it, eventually knowledge can be gained. — Dalai Lama XIV

Meanwhile, spring came, and with it the outpourings of Nature. The hills were soon splashed with wild flowers; the grass became an altogether new and richer shade of green; and the air became scented with fresh and surprising smells
of jasmine, honeysuckle, and lavender. — Dalai Lama XIV

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. — Dalai Lama XIV

As a Buddhist, I see no distinction between religious practice and daily life. Religious practice is a twenty-four hour occupation. — Dalai Lama XIV

Philosophically speaking, from the Buddhist point of view, both human beings and animals possess what in Tibetan is called shepa, which can be roughly translated as "consciousness," albeit to different degrees of complexity. — Dalai Lama XIV

Faced with a problem, then, try to remain humble, while keeping a sincere attitude, and think about the right solution. No doubt some people will try to take advantage of your attitude. If your calm seems to encourage unfair aggression, be firm, but with compassion. If it turns out to be necessary for you to prove your point by severe countermeasures, do so without resentment or bad intentions. — Dalai Lama XIV

No credible understanding of the natural world or our human existence - what I am going to call in this book a worldview - can ignore the basic insights of theories as key as evolution, relativity, and quantum mechanics. — Dalai Lama XIV

If a misfortune has already occurred, it is best not to worry about it, so we do not add fuel to the problem. Don't ally yourself with past events by lingering on them and exaggerating them. Let the past take care of itself, and transport yourself to the present while taking whatever measures are necessary to ensure that such a misfortune never occurs again, now or in the future. — Dalai Lama XIV

If you can, serve other people, other sentient beings. If not, at least refrain from harming them. I think that is the whole basis of my philosophy. — Dalai Lama XIV

When you begin to see that this assignment of extreme virtue or evil to a person or object is what makes them an object of lust or hatred, the emotion built on that exaggeration backs off; we — Dalai Lama XIV

In fact ants, to cite just one example, work unselfishly for the community; we humans sometimes do not look good by comparison. We are supposed to be higher beings, so we must act according to our higher selves. — Dalai Lama XIV

During the week their fingers were often wagging at each other teasingly, moments before their hands were clasped together affectionately. During our first lunch the Archbishop told the story of a talk they were giving together. As they were getting ready to walk on stage, the Dalai Lama - the world's icon of compassion and peace - pretended to choke his spiritual older brother. The Archbishop turned to the Dalai Lama and said, "Hey, the cameras are on us, act like a holy man." These — Dalai Lama XIV

Eating, working, and making money are meaningless in themselves. However, even a small act of compassion grants meaning and purpose to our lives. P — Dalai Lama XIV

It became clear that this man, although supposedly my enemy, was in fact just another human being, an ordinary person like myself. — Dalai Lama XIV

THE HUMAN COMMUNITY has reached a critical point in its history. The world today forces us to accept that humanity is one. In the past, the various communities could allow themselves to think that they were separate. But today, as the recent tragic events in the United States have shown,7 what happens in one country affects many other countries. The world is becoming more and more interdependent. In the context of this new interdependence, self-interest requires us to take into account the interests of others. Without understanding and promoting the sense of our universal responsibility, our future itself is threatened. — Dalai Lama XIV

In order to achieve peace, tranquility, and real friendship, we must minimize anger and cultivate kindness and a warm heart. — Dalai Lama XIV

One problem with our current society is that we have an attitude towards education as if it is there to simply make you more clever, make you more ingenious ... Even though our society does not emphasize this, the most important use of knowledge and education is to help us understand the importance of engaging in more wholesome actions and bringing about discipline within our minds. The proper utilization of our intelligence and knowledge is to effect changes from within to develop a good heart. — Dalai Lama XIV

If we think only of ourselves, forget about other people, then our minds occupy very small area. Inside that small area, even tiny problem appears very big. But the moment you develop a sense of concern for others, you realize that, just like ourselves, they also want happiness; they also want satisfaction. When you have this sense of concern, your mind automatically widens. At this point, your own problems, even big problems, will not be so significant. The result? Big increase in peace of mind. So, if you think only of yourself, only your own happiness, the result is actually less happiness. You get more anxiety, more fear. — Dalai Lama XIV

If a problem can be solved it will be. If it can not be solved there is no use worrying about it. — Dalai Lama XIV

To practice tantra requires even greater compassion and greater intelligence than are required on the sutra path; thus, though many persons in the degenerate era are interested in tantra, tantra is not for degenerate persons. Tantra is limited to persons whose compassion is so great that they cannot bear to spend unnecessary time in attaining Buddhahood, as they want to be a supreme source of help and happiness for others quickly. — Dalai Lama XIV

If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito. — Dalai Lama XIV

Human use, population, and technology have reached that certain stage where mother Earth no longer accepts our presence with silence. — Dalai Lama XIV

The true essence of humankind is kindness. There are other qualities which come from education or knowledge, but it is essential, if one wishes to be a genuine human being and impart satisfying meaning to one's existence, to have a good heart. — Dalai Lama XIV

Anger and hatred are the greatest obstacles to compassion and love. — Dalai Lama XIV

The first moment of consciousness of the new being must be preceded by its substantial cause, which must be a moment of consciousness. — Dalai Lama XIV

A happy mind is a healthy mind, and a healthy mind is good for the body. — Dalai Lama XIV

In order to lead a meaningful life, you need to cherish others, pay attention to human values and try to cultivate inner peace. — Dalai Lama XIV

When we meet real tragedy in life, we can react in two ways
either by losing hope and falling into self-destructive habits, or by using the challenge to find our inner strength. — Dalai Lama XIV

Real compassion is based on reason. Ordinary compassion or love is limited by desire or attachment. — Dalai Lama XIV

We can still develop an energy that's just as strong, but much better controlled than anger, in order to confront difficult circumstances. This controlled energy comes both from a compassionate attitude and from reason, combined with patience. These are very effective antidotes against anger. Unfortunately, many people scorn these qualities, likening them to weakness. I — Dalai Lama XIV

It is only natural that difficulties arise if we must fight day by day in order to survive while another human being, equal to us, is effortlessly living a luxurious life. This is an unhealthy situation; as a result, even the wealthy - the billionaires and millionaires - remain in constant anxiety. — Dalai Lama XIV

If scientific analysis were conclusively to demonstrate certain claims in Buddhism to be false, then we must accept the findings of science and abandon those claims. — Dalai Lama XIV

Sooner or later we have to die, and if then we review the past years with regret, it is too late, isn't it? — Dalai Lama XIV

I try to be sincere with everyone, even the Chinese government officials. If I develop some kind of ill-will, anger, or hatred, who will lose? I will lose my happiness, my sleep, and my appetite, but my ill feelings won't hurt the officials at all. If I'm agitated, my physical condition will become weak, and some people I could make happy will not become happy. — Dalai Lama XIV

Our feelings of contentment are strongly influenced by our tendency to compare. — Dalai Lama XIV

Some people think that cultivating compassion is good for others but not necessarily for themselves, but this is wrong. You are the one who benefits most directly since compassion immediately instills in you a sense of calm (nowadays medical researchers have shown in scientific studies that a calm mind is essential for good health), inner strength, and a deep confidence and satisfaction, whereas it is not certain that the object of your feeling of compassion will benefit. Love and compassion open our own inner life, reducing stress, distrust, and loneliness. — Dalai Lama XIV

According to Lyubomirsky, the three factors that seem to have the greatest influence on increasing our happiness are our ability to reframe our situation more positively, our ability to experience gratitude, and our choice to be kind and generous. These — Dalai Lama XIV

Ultimately, the source of our problems lies at the level of the individual. — Dalai Lama XIV

Those who have little interest in spirituality shouldn't think that human inner values don't apply to you. The inner peace of an alert and calm mind are the source of real happiness and good health. Our human intelligence tells us which of our emotions are positive and helpful and which are damaging and to be restrained or avoided. - 12/7/2012 on his Facebook page — Dalai Lama XIV

The acquisition of mental skills is a matter of volition and focused effort; it is not a special mystical gift given to the few. — Dalai Lama XIV

To say that all things are interdependent means that they have no inherent existence. The — Dalai Lama XIV

More dangerous than guns or bombs are hatred, lack of compassion, and lack of respect for the rights of others. As long as hatred dwells in the human mind, real peace is impossible. — Dalai Lama XIV

The goal is not to be better than the other man, but your previous self. — Dalai Lama XIV

The first step in restoring faith among those you lead is to inspire them with a sense of purpose - just — Dalai Lama XIV

I do not judge the universe. — Dalai Lama XIV

I think that generally, being honest with oneself and others about what you are or are not capable of doing can counteract that feeling of lack of self-confidence. — Dalai Lama XIV

The very purpose of our life is to seek happiness. — Dalai Lama XIV

As far as I am concerned, any deed done with good motivation is a religios one. — Dalai Lama XIV

It is not enough to be compassionate, we must act. — Dalai Lama XIV

Love and Compassion are the true religions to me. But to develop this, we do not need to believe in any religion. — Dalai Lama XIV

The human body appreciates peace of mind. Things that are disturbing to us have a very bad effect upon our health. This shows that the whole structure of our health is such that it is suited to an atmosphere of human affection. — Dalai Lama XIV

Perceptions, our ways of thinking, and our behavior. It is a question of bringing about a complete reversal of mental habits by reducing emotions in a gradual process of study, reflection, and meditation - in other words, familiarization. That is how we refine the mind and purify it through a training that actualizes its potential. We learn to master the stream of our consciousness, to control the emotional obscurations, without letting ourselves be dominated by them. That is the path toward realization of the absolute nature. Our practice integrates all the aspects and all the various levels of the Buddha's teaching. — Dalai Lama XIV

As for suffering I do not wish even the slightest; as for happiness I am never satisfied. In this, there is no difference between others and me. Bless me so I may take joy in others' happiness. — Dalai Lama XIV

An open heart is an open mind. — Dalai Lama XIV

However, if you are just making a show of your spiritual accomplishments in order to get money, for example, that is hypocrisy. — Dalai Lama XIV

Peace does not mean an absence of conflicts; differences will always be there. Peace means solving these differences through peaceful means; through dialogue, education, knowledge; and through humane ways. — Dalai Lama XIV

In Buddhism, since the definition of "living" refers to sentient beings, consciousness is the primary characteristic of "life. — Dalai Lama XIV

In daily life we experience suffering more often than pleasure. If we are patient, in the sense of taking suffering voluntarily upon ourselves, even if we are not capable of doing this physically, then we will not lose our capacity for judgement. We should remember that if a situation cannot be changed, there is no point in worrying about it. If it can be changed, then there is no need to worry about it either, we should simply go about changing it. — Dalai Lama XIV

To say 'I want to have sex with this person' is to express a desire which is not intellectually directed in the way that 'I want to eradicate poverty in the world' is an intellectually directed desire. Furthernore, the gratification of sexual desire can only ever give temporary satisfaction. Thus as Nagarjuna, the great Indian scholar said: 'When you have an itch, you scratch. But not to itch at all is better than any amount of scratching. — Dalai Lama XIV

Although I speak from my own experience, I feel that no one has the right to impose his or her beliefs on another person. I will not propose to you that my way is best. The decision is up to you. If you find some point which may be suitable for you, then you can carry out experiments for yourself. If you find that it is of no use, then you can discard it. His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama — Dalai Lama XIV

This is a precious gateway into the alleviation of suffering, which I believe to be our principal task on this earth. — Dalai Lama XIV

Like modern science, Buddhism holds the basic premise that, at the most fundamental level, there is no qualitative difference between the material basis of the body of a sentient being, such as a human, and that of, say, a piece of rock. — Dalai Lama XIV

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion. — Dalai Lama XIV

No more can the reader hope to learn virtue merely by reading this book - unless, of course, it is so boring as to demand perseverance! — Dalai Lama XIV

The highest happiness is when one reaches the stage of Liberation, at which there is no more suffering. That's genuine, lasting happiness. True happiness relates more to the mind and heart. Happiness that depends mainly on physical pleasure is unstable; one day it's there, the next day it may not be. — Dalai Lama XIV

There is a Possibility of freedom from suffering. By removing the causes of suffering, it is possible to attain a state of Liberation, a state free from suffering. According to Buddhist thought, the root causes of suffering are ignorance, craving, and hatred. These are called the 'three poisons of the mind.'These — Dalai Lama XIV

If the situation or problem is such that it can be remedied, then there is no need to worry about it. In other words, if there is a solution or a way out of the difficulty, then one needn't be overwhelmed by it. The appropriate action is to seek its solution. It is more sensible to spend the energy focusing on the solution rather than worrying about the problem. Alternatively, if there is no way out, no solution, no Possibility of resolution, then there is also no point in being worried about it, because you can't do anything about it anyway. In that case, the sooner you accept this fact, the easier it will be on you. This formula, of course, implies directly confronting the problem. Otherwise you won't be able to find out whether or not there is a resolution to the problem. — Dalai Lama XIV

Thus, the flower exists: its forms and characteristics are inscribed in our mind. But its nature is devoid of any intrinsic existence. — Dalai Lama XIV

The purpose of all the major religious traditions is not to construct big temples on the outside, but to create temples of goodness and compassion inside, in our hearts. — Dalai Lama XIV

Hard times build determination and inner strength. Through them we can also come to appreciate the uselessness of anger. Instead of getting angry nurture a deep caring and respect for troublemakers because by creating such trying circumstances they provide us with invaluable opportunities to practice tolerance and patience. — Dalai Lama XIV

If you wish to experience peace, provide peace for another.
If you wish to know that you are safe, cause another to know that they are safe.
If you wish to better understand seemingly incomprehensible things, help another to better understand.
If you wish to heal your own sadness or anger, seek to heal the sadness or anger of another. — Dalai Lama XIV

Our ancient experience confirms at every point that everything is linked together, everything is inseparable. — Dalai Lama XIV

The mind is compared to a wild horse,and the practice of ethics is compared to the reins by which this wild horse is tamed. — Dalai Lama XIV

Violence can only breed more violence and suffering. Our struggle must remain non-violent and free of hatred. — Dalai Lama XIV