Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama Quotes

407 Sourced Quotes

It is important not to allow ourselves to be put off by the magnitude of others' suffering. The misery of millions is not a cause for pity. Rather it is a cause for compassion.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
Nothing comes into being without a cause and when all the conditions are created, there is nothing that can prevent the consequence.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
To help us bring benefit to others through our words and actions, it is useful to cultivate an attitude of sympathetic joy in others' achievements and good fortune. This attitude is a powerful antidote against envy, which is not only a source of unnecessary suffering on the individual level but also an obstacle to our ability to reach out and engage with others.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
The ultimate source of my mental happiness is my peace of mind. Nothing can destroy this except my own anger.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
An ethical act is one which does not harm others' experience or expectation of happiness.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
Look at children...
If they feel angry with someone,
they express it, and then it is finished.
They can still play with that person the following day.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
A human being isn't meant to be some kind of machine designed only for production. No. Human life isn't just for work...

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
Through difficult experiences, life sometimes becomes more meaningful.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
The need for love lies at the very foundation of human existence.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
Appreciate how rare and full of potential your situation is in this world, then take joy in it, and use it to your best advantage.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
A zero itself is nothing, but without a zero you cannot count anything; therefore, a zero is something, yet zero.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
Peace and the survival of life on earth as we know it are threatened by human activities which lack a commitment to humanitarian values. Destruction of nature and nature's resources result from ignorance, greed and lack of respect for the earth's living things.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
If we don't understand phenomena, we are more likely to do things to harm ourselves and others.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
Chairman Mao once said that political power comes from the barrel of a gun. He was only partly right: power that comes from the barrel of a gun can be effective only for a short time. In the end, peoples love for truth, justice, freedom, and democracy will triumph. No matter what governments do, the human spirit will always prevail.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
No material object, however beautiful or valuable, can make us feel loved, because our deeper identity and true character lie in the subjective nature of the mind.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
Only through the development of mutual respect, and in a spirit of truth, can friendship come about. By these means it is possible to move human minds, but never by force.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
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.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
I feel that a genuine, affectionate smile is very important in our day-to-day lives. How one creates that smile largely depends on one's own attitude. It is illogical to expect smiles from others if one does not smile oneself. Therefore, one can see that many things depend on one's own behaviour.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
Buddhahood is a state free of all obstructions to knowledge and disturbing emotions. It is the state in which the mind is fully evolved.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
Without love we could not survive. Human beings are social creatures,
and a concern for each other is the very basis of our life together.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
If your life becomes only a medium of production, then many of the good human values and characteristics will be lost.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
Real power has to do with one's ability to influence the hearts and minds of others.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
If we choose an external marker as the measure of our inner worth, whether it is the amount of money we make, or others' opinion of us, or the success of some project we're involved in, sooner or later we're bound to be battered by life's inevitable changes. After all, money comes and goes, and thus is an unstable source of self-esteem, an unreliable foundation upon which to build our identity.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
We must recognize that all beings want the same thing we want. This is the way to achieve a true understanding, unfettered by artificial consideration.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
Many of the earth's habitats, animals, plants, insects and even micro-organisms that we know to be rare may not be known at all by future generations. We have the capability and the responsibility to act; we must do so before it is too late.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
I try to treat whoever I meet as an old friend. This gives me a genuine feeling of happiness. It is the practice of compassion.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
Our state of mind plays a major role in our day-to-day experiences as well as our physical and mental well-being. If a person has a calm and stable mind, this influences his or her attitude and behavior in relation to others. In other words, if someone remains in a peaceful and tranquil state of mind, external surroundings can cause them only a limited disturbance.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
Our individual well-being is intimately connected both with that of all others and with the environment within which we live.... Our every action, our every deed, word, and thought, no matter how slight or inconsequential it may seem, has an implication not only for ourselves, but for all others, too.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
Basically, therefore, we should approach others openly, recognizing each person as another human being just like ourselves. There is not much difference between us all.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
Happiness that depends mainly on physical pleasure is unstable; one day it's there, the next day it may not be.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama