Dalai Lama Xiv Quotes

#1. His tears and his spontaneous laughter are teachings within the teaching, reminding us of the incarnate dimension of wisdom.

Dalai Lama XIV

#2. Generosity is the most natural outward expression of an inner attitude of compassion and loving-kindness.

Dalai Lama XIV

#3. Yet again I was reminded that the way in which things and events unfold does not always coincide with our expectations. Indeed, this fact of life - that there is often a gap between the way in which we perceive phenomena and the reality of a given situation - is the source of much unhappiness.

Dalai Lama XIV

#4. Buddhism and science share a fundamental reluctance to postulate a transcendent being as the origin of all things.

Dalai Lama XIV

#5. Neither a space station nor an enlightened mind can be realized in a day.

Dalai Lama XIV

#6. The theory of emptiness ... is the deep recognition that there is a fundamental disparity between the way we perceive the world, including our own existence in it, and the way things actually are.

Dalai Lama XIV

#7. Our altruistic mind is the key to our happiness as individuals, families, nations, and as an international community.

Dalai Lama XIV

#8. 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

#9. The enemy is the necessary condition for practicing patience.

Dalai Lama XIV

#10. THE SELF IS THE ROOT of the mental poisons. Our mind fabricates, projects, and attaches concepts to people and things. Egocentric fixation reinforces the qualities or defects that we attribute to others. From

Dalai Lama XIV

#11. I believe each human being has the potential to change, to transform one's own attitude, no matter how difficult the situation.

Dalai Lama XIV

#12. A good friend who points out mistakes and imperfections and rebukes evil is to be respected as if he reveals the secret of some hidden treasure.

Dalai Lama XIV

#13. At the beginning of our life is birth, during which we suffer, and at the end of our life is death, during which we also suffer. Between these two come aging and illness. No matter how wealthy you are or how physically fit you are, you have to suffer through these circumstances.

Dalai Lama XIV

#14. We cannot learn real patience and tolerance from a guru or a friend. They can be practiced only when we come in contact with someone who creates unpleasant experiences.

Dalai Lama XIV

#15. Fanaticism leads to counterfanaticism, which is just as much to be feared.

Dalai Lama XIV

#16. Because we all share
an identical need for love,
it is possible to feel that
anybody we meet,
in whatever circumstances,
is a brother or sister.

Dalai Lama XIV

#17. When our minds are clouded by hatred, selfishness, jealousy, and anger, we lose not only control but also our judgment.

Dalai Lama XIV

#18. The ultimate source of comfort and peace is within ourselves.

Dalai Lama XIV

#19. I do not think about converting others to Buddhism or merely furthering the Buddhist cause. Instead, I try to think of how I as a Buddhist can contribute to the happiness of all living beings.

Dalai Lama XIV

#20. Living in society, we must share the suffering of our fellow citizens and practice compassion and tolerance not only toward our loved ones but also toward our enemies.

Dalai Lama XIV

#21. To remain indifferent to the challenges we face is indefensible. If the goal is noble, whether or not it is realized within our lifetime is largely irrelevant. What we must do therefore is to strive and persevere and never give up.

Dalai Lama XIV

#22. Prana is the aspect of mobility, dynamism, and cohesion, while consciousness is the aspect of cognition and the capacity for reflective thinking. So according to the Guhyasamaja tantra, when a world system comes into being, we are witnessing the play of this energy and consciousness reality.

Dalai Lama XIV

#23. A genuine, affectionate smile is very important in our day-to-day lives.

Dalai Lama XIV

#24. The more time you spend thinking about yourself, the more suffering you will experience.

Dalai Lama XIV

#25. Happiness is a combination of inner peace, economic viability, and above all, world peace.

Dalai Lama XIV

#26. A truly compassionate attitude toward others does not change even if they behave negatively or hurt you.

Dalai Lama XIV

#27. Negative thoughts and emotions are what obstruct our most basic aspiration - to be happy and to avoid suffering. When we act under their influence, we become oblivious to the impact our actions have on others: they are thus the cause of our destructive behavior both toward others and to ourselves.

Dalai Lama XIV

#28. Human use, population, and technology have reached that certain stage where mother Earth no longer accepts our presence with silence.

Dalai Lama XIV

#29. Knowledge is like the great army that will help us crush the forces of our own faults.

Dalai Lama XIV

#30. The way to change others' minds is with affection, and not anger.

Dalai Lama XIV

#31. Every human actions becomes dangerous when it is deprived of human feeling. When they are performed with feeling and respect for human values, all activities become constructive.

Dalai Lama XIV

#32. A revolution is called for, certainly. But not a political, an economic, or even a technical revolution. We have had enough experience of these during the past century to know that a purely external approach will not suffice. What I propose is a spiritual revolution.

Dalai Lama XIV

#33. 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

#34. What we need today is an approach to ethics which makes no recourse to religion and can be equally acceptable to those with faith and those without: a secular ethics.

Dalai Lama XIV

#35. The creatures that inhabit this earth
be they human beings or animals
are here to contribute, each in its own particular way, to the beauty and prosperity of the world.

Dalai Lama XIV

#36. Historically, the East was more concerned with understanding the mind and the West was more involved in understanding matter.

Dalai Lama XIV

#37. If we use the brilliant human mind in the wrong way, it is really a disaster.

Dalai Lama XIV

#38. Real compassion is based on reason. Ordinary compassion or love is limited by desire or attachment.

Dalai Lama XIV

#39. True change is within; leave the outside as it is.

Dalai Lama XIV

#40. Happiness is determined more by one's state of mind than by external events.

Dalai Lama XIV

#41. We must have a human approach. As far as socioeconomic theory, I am Marxist.

Dalai Lama XIV

#42. Because of the interdependent nature of everything, we cannot hope to solve the multifarious problems with a one-sided or self-centered attitude.

Dalai Lama XIV

#43. Do not let the behavior of others destroy your inner peace.

Dalai Lama XIV

#44. Or recite this mantra: om mani padme hum (pronounced "om mani padmay hum").

Dalai Lama XIV

#45. All truths in science must be demonstrated either through experiment or through mathematical proof. The idea that something must be so because Newton or Einstein said so is simply not scientific.

Dalai Lama XIV

#46. Whether you believe in God or not does not matter much, whether you believe in Buddha or not does not matter so much; as a Buddhist, whether you believe in reincarnation or not does not matter so much. You must lead a good life.

Dalai Lama XIV

#47. I do not judge the universe.

Dalai Lama XIV

#48. Silence is sometimes the best answer

Dalai Lama XIV

#49. After identifying the scope of suffering, we need to discover its sources, which are twofold: afflictive, or counterproductive, emotions, and contaminated karmas.

Dalai Lama XIV

#50. The smile is a very important feature of the human face.

Dalai Lama XIV

#51. We need to learn how to want what we have NOT to have what we want in order to get steady and stable Happiness

Dalai Lama XIV

#52. Life is as dear to a mute creature as it is to man. Just as one wants happiness and fears pain, just as one wants to live and not die, so do other creatures.

Dalai Lama XIV

#53. The various features and aspects of human life, such as longevity, good health, success, happiness, and so forth, which we consider desirable, are all dependent on kindness and a good heart.

Dalai Lama XIV

#54. In replacing religion as the final source of knowledge in popular estimation, science begins to look a bit like another religion itself.

Dalai Lama XIV

#55. The practice of cultivating altruism has a beneficial effect not only from the religious point of view but also from the mundane point of view, not only for long term spiritual development but even in terms of immediate rewards.

Dalai Lama XIV

#56. The time one has to live is like the sun peeping through clouds,

Dalai Lama XIV

#57. Lha Gyal Lo! (Victory to the gods)

Dalai Lama XIV

#58. Buddhism has long had a theory of what in neuroscience is called the plasticity of the brain.

Dalai Lama XIV

#59. All problems, including terrorism, can be overcome through education, particularly by introducing concern for all others at the preschool level.

Dalai Lama XIV

#60. Dangerous consequences will follow when politicians and rulers forget moral principles. Whether we believe in God or karma, ethics is the foundation of every religion.

Dalai Lama XIV

#61. Rather, spend more on health and education for poor people. This is not forced socialism but voluntary compassion.

Dalai Lama XIV

#62. Even if I have to do it alone, I will free all sentient beings from suffering and the causes of suffering, and set all sentient beings in happiness and its causes.

Dalai Lama XIV

#63. Live a life that transcends your own!

Dalai Lama XIV

#64. 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

#65. 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

#66. Once we are able to combine a feeling of empathy for others with a profound understanding of the suffering they experience, we become able to generate genuine compassion for them. We must work at this continually.

Dalai Lama XIV

#67. The Dalai Lama took the Archbishop's hand, and then they were more eight than eighty, laughing and making jokes together as they strolled toward the terminal, yellow umbrella sheltering above them. Even

Dalai Lama XIV

#68. World peace must develop from inner peace. Peace is not just mere absence of violence. Peace is, I think, the manifestation of human compassion.

Dalai Lama XIV

#69. When we are motivated by compassion and wisdom, the results of our actions benefit everyone, not just our individual selves or some immediate convenience. When we are able to recognize and forgive ignorant actions of the past, we gain strength to constructively solve the problems of the present.

Dalai Lama XIV

#70. Altruism is the surest and most effective way to bring about genuine life satisfaction.

Dalai Lama XIV

#71. Human beings are children of the Earth. Whereas our common Mother Earth has tolerated our conduct up to now, she is showing us at present that we have reached the limits of what is tolerable.

Dalai Lama XIV

#72. Happiness is not ready made. It comes from your own actionns

Dalai Lama XIV

#73. The world has also learned that economic growth, by itself, cannot close the gap between rich and poor.

Dalai Lama XIV

#74. If you can cultivate the right attitude, your enemies are your best spiritual teachers because their presence provides you with the opportunity to enhance and develop tolerance, patience and understanding.

Dalai Lama XIV

#75. To train the mind, you must exercise the patience and determination it takes to shape that steel.

Dalai Lama XIV

#76. According to my experience, the principal characteristic of genuine happiness is peace: inner peace.

Dalai Lama XIV

#77. Our feelings of contentment are strongly influenced by our tendency to compare.

Dalai Lama XIV

#78. All suffering is caused by ignorance. People inflict pain on others in the selfish pursuit of their own happiness or satisfaction

Dalai Lama XIV

#79. On every level - as individuals, and as members of a family, a community, a nation, and a planet - the most mischievous troublemakers we face are anger and egoism.

Dalai Lama XIV

#80. 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

#81. Rather, genuine compassion is based on the rationale that all human beings have an innate desire to be happy and overcome suffering, just like myself. And, just like myself, they have the natural right to fulfill this fundamental aspiration.

Dalai Lama XIV

#82. My meetings with many different sorts of people the world over have, however, helped me realize that there are other faiths, and other cultures, no less capable than mine of enabling individuals to lead constructive and satisfying lives.

Dalai Lama XIV

#83. Mental tranquility, or calmness, is a very important source of happiness. An external enemy, no matter how powerful, cannot strike directly at our mental calmness, because calmness is formless. Our happiness or joy can only be destroyed by our own anger. The real enemy of joy is anger.

Dalai Lama XIV

#84. Let distractions melt away like clouds disappearing in the sky. - MILAREPA

Dalai Lama XIV

#85. But for all its benefits in offering moral guidance and meaning in life, in today's secular world religion alone is no longer adequate as a basis for ethics.

Dalai Lama XIV

#86. In both the global community and the family, human beings need harmony and cooperation, which comes through mutual respect. Altruism is the most crucial factor.

Dalai Lama XIV

#87. The very purpose of our life is to seek happiness.

Dalai Lama XIV

#88. 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

#89. No matter how much violence or how many bad things we have to go through, I believe that the ultimate solution to our conflicts, both internal and external, lies in returning to our basic or underlying human nature, which is gentle and compassionate.

Dalai Lama XIV

#90. What is more, I have come to the conclusion that whether or not a person is a religious believer does not matter much. Far more important is that they be a good human being. I

Dalai Lama XIV

#91. There is more to human existence and to reality itself than current science can ever give us access to.

Dalai Lama XIV

#92. [Through practice] we can get to the point where some disturbance may occur but the negative effects on our mind remain on the surface, like the waves that may ripple on the surface of an ocean but don't have much effect deep down.

Dalai Lama XIV

#93. THE BASIC SOURCES OF HAPPINESS ARE a good heart, compassion, and love. If we have these, even if we're surrounded by hostility, we'll feel little disturbance.

Dalai Lama XIV

#94. People think of animals as if they were vegetables, and that is not right. We have to change the way people think about animals. I encourage the Tibetan people and all people to move toward a vegetarian diet that doesn't cause suffering.

Dalai Lama XIV

#95. Those questions which are unexpected and complicated are the ones I appreciate most. They can help me a great deal. as I am compelled to take an interest in something that might not otherwise have occurred to me.

Dalai Lama XIV

#96. I believe the twenty-first century can become the most important century of human history. I think a new reality is emerging. Whether this view is realistic or not, there is no harm in making an effort.

Dalai Lama XIV

#97. By saying that phenomena are empty of intrinsic existence, we are declaring not their nonexistence but their interdependence, their absence of concrete reality. And the emptiness of phenomena, far from being a mental construct or a concept, corresponds to the reality itself of the phenomenal world.

Dalai Lama XIV

#98. War is massacre. It is 100 per cent negative.

Dalai Lama XIV

#99. When selflessness is seen in objects, the seed of cyclic existence is destroyed.

Dalai Lama XIV

#100. He told me that while he was in a Chinese Communist gulag for almost eighteen years, he faced danger on a few occasions. I thought he was referencing a threat to his own life. But when I asked, "What danger?" he answered, "Losing compassion toward the Chinese.

Dalai Lama XIV