Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama Quotes

407 Sourced Quotes

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.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
Hard times build determination and inner strength. Through them we can also come to appreciate the uselessness of anger.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
If you want to change the world, first try to improve and bring about change within yourself. That will help change your family. From there it just gets bigger and bigger. Everything we do has some effect, some impact.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
It is a wonderful thing if one can use one's place of work as a place of spiritual practice as well.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
I feel that we should not only maintain gentle, peaceful relations with our fellow human beings bur also that is very important to extend the same kind of attitude toward the natural environment.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
Taking care of our planet is like taking care of our houses. Since we human beings come from Nature, there is no point in our going against nature, which is why I say the environment is not a matter of religion or ethics or morality. These are luxuries, since we can survive without them. But we will not survive if we continue to go against nature.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
A mind wishing to benefit other people and other sentient beings is the very basis of peace and happiness.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
The essence of compassion is a desire to alleviate the suffering of others and to promote their well-being

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
There is often a big disparity between the way in which we perceive things and the way things really are.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
I request you to try to be warm-hearted. I ask this of you because these mental attitudes actually bring us happiness.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
You can develop the right attitude toward others if you have kindness, love and respect for them, and a clear realization of the oneness of all human beings.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
We can benefit others through our actions by being warm and generous toward them, by being charitable, and by helping those in need.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
We are the creators of our own happiness and suffering, for everything originates in the mind.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
How can we eliminate the deepest source of all unsatisfactory experience? Only by cultivating certain qualities within our mindstream.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
We can wake ourselves up, discover in ourselves an energy that was hidden there, and act with more clarity, more force.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
The rationale for loving others is the recognition of the simple fact that every living being has the same right to and the same desire for happiness, and not suffering, and the consideration that you as one individual are one life unit as compared with the mulititude of others in their ceaseless quest for happiness.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
Responsibility does not only lie with the leaders of our countries or with those who have been appointed or elected to do a particular job. It lies with each of us individually.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
Cultivating a close, warmhearted feeling for others automatically puts the mind at ease.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
Inner darkness, which we call ignorance, is the root of suffering. The more inner light that comes, the more darkness will diminish. This is the only way to achieve salvation or nirvana.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
Whether we are rich or poor,
educated or uneducated,
whatever our nationality, colour,
social status or ideology may be,
the purpose of our lives is to be happy

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
I have come to the conclusion that whether or not a person is a religious believer does not matter. Far more important is that they be a good human being.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
If we have a positive mental attitude, then even when surrounded by hostility, we shall not lack inner peace.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
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.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
May I examine my mind in all actions and as soon as a negative state occurs, since it endangers myself and others, may I firmly face and avert it.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
We cannot overcome anger and hatred simply by suppressing them. We need to actively cultivate the antidotes: patience and tolerance.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
I believe deeply that we must find, all of us together, a new spirituality.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
Unless we possess high spiritual qualifications, there is no doubt that the events life throws upon us will give rise to frustration, emotional turmoil, and other distorted states of consciousness. These imperfect states of mind in turn give rise to imperfect activities, and the seeds of suffering are ever planted in a steady flow.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
A generous heart and wholesome actions lead to greater peace.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
Human potential is the same for all. If you have will power, then you can change anything.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
All religions are essentially the same in their goal of developing a good human heart so that we may become better human beings.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama