Dalai Lama Quotes

“I believe compassion to be one of the few things we can practice that will bring immediate and long-term happiness to our lives. I’m not talking about the short-term gratification of pleasures like sex, drugs or gambling (though I’m not knocking them), but something that will bring true and lasting happiness. The kind that sticks.”
― Dalai Lama XIV

“It turned out this man worked for the Dalai Lama. And she said gently-that they believe when a lot of things start going wrong all at once, it is to protect something big and lovely that is trying to get itself born-and that this something needs for you to be distracted so that it can be born as perfectly as possible.”
― Anne Lamott, Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith

“The true hero is one who conquers his own anger and hatred.”
― Dalai Lama XIV

“Compassion is not religious business, it is human business, it is not luxury, it is essential for our own peace and mental stability, it is essential for human survival.”
― Dalai Lama

“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

“In order to lead a meaningful life, you need to cherish others, pay attention to human values and try to cultivate inner peace.”
― Dalai Lama

“The enemy is the necessary condition for practicing patience.”
― His Holiness The Dalai Lama

“The more honest you are, the more open, the less fear you will have, because there's no anxiety about being exposed or revealed to others.”
― Dalai Lama XIV, The Art of Happiness

“The topic of compassion is not at all religious business; it is important to know it is human business, it is a question of human survival.”
― Dalai Lama XIV

“All major religious traditions carry basically the same message: that is love, compassion and forgiveness. The important thing is they should be part of our daily lives.”
― Dalai Lama XIV

“War can condition a person to be resilient, tolerant, dependable, strong, and capable of so much more than one who had experienced nothing of it; it can bring out the very best in us, but also the very worst. Where is it, I ask, the proper conduit through which a soldier should be raised from whence they would become an upstanding citizen of the world, instead of a single country?”
― Mike Norton

“If there is a true measure of a person's soul, if there is a single gauge of real divinity, of how beautifully a fellow human honors this life, has genuine spiritual fire and is full of honest love and compassion, it has to be right there, in the eyes.

The Dalai Lama's eyes sparkle and dance with laughter and unbridled love. The Pope's eyes are dark and glazed, bleak as obsidian marbles. Pat Robertson's eyes are rheumy and hollow, like tiny potholes of old wax. Goldman Sachs cretins, well, they don't use their own eyes at all; they just steal someone else's.”
― Mark Morford

“I meditate, and when I do, Prince Harry appears in my subconscious and meditates with me. It's a little strange but I don't think there's anything I can do about it. Sometimes he's not the only one; the other day it was me, Prince Harry, the Dalai Lama, Mr. Rogers, Coco the gorilla, and George Clooney. We were all floating above the earth looking down at the continents as they passed. George Clooney suggested I visit Providence, Rhode Island. The Dalai Lama sighed deeply and said he'd like to visit Tibet.
Poor Dalai Lama.”
― Kristin Cashore

“FOLLOW YOUR HEART
for your heart will always know the answer. but if it tells you to strangle kittens or something then DON'T follow it anymore.I mean it's just a heart, right? It's not the Dalai lama.”
― Edward Monkton

“If you have no inner peace of mind, it is futile to seek peace outside.”
― Debasish Mridha

“When you think everything is someone else's fault, you will suffer a lot. When you realize that everything springs from yourself, you will learn both peace and joy.”
― Dalai Lama

“The Dalai Lama walks into a pizza store... and says, "Can you make me one with everything?”
― Santosh Kalwar, Gags and Extracts

“Man surprised me most about humanity. Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived.” The Dalai Lama”
― Michael Williams, Buddhism: Beginner's Guide to Understanding & Practicing Buddhism to Become Stress and Anxiety Free

“Merely to call oneself a Buddhist is of little value.”
― Dalai Lama

“His Holiness the Dalai Lama does Yamantaka self-initiation every day. He has said that when he does, he keeps Geshe Kelsang in his heart. Geshe Kelsang is totally against His Holiness; he demonstrates and criticizes so much, but His Holiness says he keeps him in his heart. He told us this.”
― Thubten Zopa, Sun of Devotion, Stream of Blessings

“When receiving the teachings, it is important to have the correct attitude. It is not practicing the Dharma properly to listen with the intention of gaining material advantage or reputation. Neither should our goal be higher rebirth in the next life, nor should we be wishing only for our own liberation from samsara. These are all attitudes we should reject. Instead, let us listen to the teachings with the determined wish to attain the state of omniscience for the sake of all beings.”
― Dalai Lama XIV, For the Benefit of All Beings: A Commentary on the Way of the Bodhisattva

“So," the Dalai Lama finally said, slapping the Archbishop on the wrist playfully. "I prefer to go to hell than to heaven. I can solve more problems in hell. I can help more people there.”
― Dalai Lama XIV, The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World

“When I use the word “spiritual,” I don’t necessarily mean religious faith. It is quite obvious that there are two levels of spirituality—spirituality with religious faith and that without. Obviously, an individual can manage to lead a meaningful life without religious faith, but you can’t be a happy person without the spirituality of basic human values. As long as we remain human, there is no way that we can neglect this.”
― Dalai Lama XIV, Illuminating the Path to Enlightenment: A Commentary on Atisha Dipamkara Shrijnana's A Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment and Lama Je Tsong Khapa's Lines of Experience

“It is said of the Dalai Lama that when he stops to talk to you, for that moment, he makes you feel that you are the most important thing in his life, you have his full attention.”
― Eric Overby, Legacy

“I firmly believe that if science proves scriptures wrong, then the scriptures should be changed. The Buddha himself says that understanding must come through investigation logic and reasoning. Not just faith.”
― Rajiv Mehrotra Dalai Lama

“People in positions of leadership like politicians have emerged from within a society that depends on money so naturally they think like that and lead society further in that direction. In this kind of society people who value affection and compassion are treated like fools. While those whose priority is making money become more and more arrogant. To be angry on behalf of those who are treated unjustly means that we have compassionate anger. This type of anger leads to right action and leads to social change. To be angry towards the people in power does not create change. It creates more anger, more resentment, more fighting.”
― Noriyuki Ueda, Be Angry

“Hay unas palabras del Dalai Lama que creo que resumen todo lo escrito: Lo que más me sorprende del hombre occidental es que pierde la salud para ganar dinero, después pierde el dinero para recuperar la salud. Y por pensar ansiosamente en el futuro, no disfruta el presente, por lo que no vive ni el presente ni el futuro. Y vive como si no tuviese que morir nunca, y muere como si nunca hubiera vivido.”
― Helen Flix, Slow life: Vive de forma más consciente (Crecimiento nº 6)

“We can reject everything else: religion, ideology, all received wisdom. But we cannot escape the necessity of love and compassion. This, then, is my true religion, my simple faith. In this sense, there is no need for temple or church, for mosque or synagogue, no need for complicated philosophy, doctrine, or dogma. Our own heart, our own mind, is the temple. The doctrine is compassion. Love for others and respect for their rights and dignity, no matter who or what they are: ultimately these are all we need.”
― Dalai Lama

“When someone hurts you, it’s because they’re hurt. Their hurt is simply spilling over. They need help. And as the Dalai Lama says, “If you can, help others; if you cannot do that, at least do not harm them.”
― Jay Shetty, Domā kā mūks: iemāci prātam mieru un mērķi katru dienu

“There is no realm in samsara where we have not taken birth, no samsaric pleasure we have not enjoyed, and no form of life we have not known over our countless stream of previous lives. Yet even now as humans most of us are like blind animals, unable to discern the patterns of life unfolding within us, leaving spiritual aims behind and chasing only the biological and emotional needs of the senses. Totally unaware of the spiritual methods that produce everlasting joy, we admire the ignoble and have distaste for the noble.”
― Dalai Lama XIV, Refining Gold: Stages in Buddhist Contemplative Practice