The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World

by Dalai Lama XIV

Because, again, you have not said, ‘Well how can I be happy?’ You’ve not said that. You’ve said, ‘How can I help to spread compassion and love?’

A compassionate concern for others’ well-being is the source of happiness.

“In fact, survey after survey has shown that it is unhappy people who tend to be most self-focused and are socially withdrawn, brooding, and even antagonistic. Happy people, in contrast, are generally found to be more sociable, flexible, and creative, and are able to tolerate life’s daily frustrations more easily than unhappy people. And, most important, they are found to be more loving and forgiving than unhappy people.”

In short, the more we heal our own pain, the more we can turn to the pain of others.

We cannot bring peace if we do not have inner peace. Similarly, we cannot hope to make the world a better, happier place if we do not also aspire for this in our own lives.

You are made for perfection, but you are not yet perfect. You are a masterpiece in the making.”

modern society has prioritized independence to such an extent that we are left on our own to try to manage lives that are increasingly out of control.

When we relate to others from the place of compassion it goes to the first level, the human level, not the secondary level of difference.

We often feel that suffering will engulf us, or that the suffering will never end, but if we can realize that it, too, will pass, or as the Buddhists say, that it is impermanent, we can survive them more easily, and perhaps appreciate what we have to learn from them, find the meaning in them, so that we come out the other side, not embittered but ennobled.

Now you see, we are guests here on this planet, visitors who have come for a short time, so we need to use our days wisely, to make our world a little better for everyone.”

“It is not happiness that makes us grateful. It is gratefulness that makes us happy.