Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama Quotes

407 Sourced Quotes

With genuine love and compassion, another person's appearance or behavior has no affect on your attitude.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
Once you encourage the thought of compassion in your mind, once it becomes active, then your attitude towards others changes automatically.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
We have a natural creative ability and it is very important to realize this.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
We had a rule in Tibet that anyone proposing a new invention had to guarentee that it was beneficial, or at least harmless, for seven generations of humans before it could be adopted.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
Attachment constrains our vision so that we are not able to see things from a wider perspective.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
Just as rust, which arose from the iron itself, wears out the iron, likewise, performing an action without examination would destroy us by projecting us into a negative state of existence.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
Since at the beginning and end of our lives we are so dependent on other's kindness, how can it be in......the middle that we would neglect kindness towards others?

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
The training of the mind is an art. If this can be considered art, one's life is art.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
If you develop a pure and sincere motivation, if you are motivated by a wish to help on the basis of kindness, compassion, and respect, then you can carry on any kind of work, in any field, and function more effectively.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
Good human qualities-honesty, sincerity, a good heart-cannot be bought with money, nor can they be produced my machines, but only by the mind itself. We can call this the inner light, or God's blessing, or human qualitity. This is the essence of mankind.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
Compassion is something really worthwhile. It is not just a religious or spiritual subject, not a matter of ideology. It is not a luxury, it is a necessity.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
When, from the depths of your heart, you spontaneously wish all beings to find true, lasting happiness, this is great love.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
Some people, sweet and attractive, and strong and healthy, happen to die young. They are masters in disguise teaching us about impermanence.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
When reason ends, then anger begins. Therefore, anger is a sign of weakness.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
The development of a kind heart, or feeling of closeness for all human beings, does not involve any of the kind of religiosity we normally associate with it...It is for everyone, irrespective of race, religion or any political affiliation.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
Learning to forgive is much more useful than merely picking up a stone and throwing it at the object of one's anger, the more so when the provocation is extreme. For it is under the greatest adversity that there exists the greatest potential for doing good, both for oneself and others.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
It is not enough to be compassionate. You must act. There are two aspects to action. One is to overcome the distortions and afflictions of your own mind, that is, in terms of calming and eventually dispelling anger. This is action out of compassion. The other is more social, more public. When something needs to be done in the world to rectify the wrongs, if one is really concerned with benefitting others, one needs to be engaged, involved.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
A mind committed to compassion is like an overflowing reservoir - a constant source of energy, determination, and kindness.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
True friends share genuine closeness and remain friends irrespective of fluctuating fortunes.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
We know that to wage a nuclear war today, for example, would be a form of suicide; or that to pollute the air or the oceans in order to achieve some short-term benefit would be to destroy the very basis for our survival.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
So the first step in seeking happiness is learning. We first have to learn how negative emotions and behaviors are harmful to us and how positive emotions are helpful.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
What acts as a far more effective circumstance for generating compassion and what, in fact, rouses us from our comfortable meditation seat is actually seeing or hearing others - encountering others directly, not just conceptually in our imagination.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
If one's cause is supported by sound reasoning, there is no point in using violence. It is those who have no motive other than selfish desire and who cannot achieve their goal through logical reasoning who rely on force.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
The proper way to create friends is to have a warm heart, not simply money or power. The friend of power and the friend of money are something different.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
Universal responsibility is the key to human survival. It is the best foundation for world peace.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
My earnest request is that you practice love and kindness whether you believe in a religion or not

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
The mind must be developed by you alone. There is no way for others to do the work and for you to reap the results. Reading someone else's blueprint of mental progress will not transfer its realizations to you. You have to develop them yourself.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
A balanced and skillful approach to life, taking care to avoid extremes, becomes a very important factor in conducting one's everyday existence.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
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.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
Genuine human friendship is on the basis of human affection, irrespective of your position. Therefore, the more you show concern about the welfare and rights of others, the more you are a genuine friend. The more you remain open and sincere, then ultimately more benefits will come to you. If you forget or do not bother about others, then eventually you will lose your own benefit.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama