The Path to Tranquility Quotes

“Irrespective of whether we are believers or agnostics, whether we believe in God or karma, moral ethics is a code which everyone is able to pursue.”
― Dalai Lama, The Path To Tranquility: Daily Meditations By The Dalai Lama

“FEBRUARY 27 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.”
― Renuka Singh, The Dalai Lama's Book Of Daily Meditations: The Path to Tranquillity

“IT IS SAID that if you want to know what you were doing in the past, look at your body now; if you want to know what will happen to you in the future, look at what your mind is doing now.”
― Renuka Singh, The Dalai Lama's Book Of Daily Meditations: The Path to Tranquillity

“JUNE 11 GUILT, AS EXPERIENCED in Western culture, is connected with hopelessness and discouragement, and is past-oriented. Genuine remorse, however, is a healthy state of mind — it is future-oriented, connected with hope, and causes us to act, to change.”
― Renuka Singh, The Dalai Lama's Book Of Daily Meditations: The Path to Tranquillity

“JUNE 5 IN THE MEDITATION of mental quiescence, in the nine states of mind, there is a state where striving must be abandoned; an effortless concentration is necessary at a certain stage. It is effortless: that means your mind becomes very tranquil — with good qualities and its character complete. At that moment, if you make an effort that disturbs the tranquillity. So in order to maintain that pure tranquillity effortless effort must be used.”
― Renuka Singh, The Dalai Lama's Book Of Daily Meditations: The Path to Tranquillity

“JUNE 1 WHEN WE ARE able to recognize and forgive ignorant actions done in one’s past, we strengthen ourselves and can solve the problems of the present constructively.”
― Renuka Singh, The Dalai Lama's Book Of Daily Meditations: The Path to Tranquillity

“MAY 27 CRUCIAL TO THE hermeneutical approach is the Mahayana principle of the four reliances. These are: (i) reliance on the teaching, not on the teacher; (ii) reliance on the meaning, not on the words that express it; (iii) reliance on the definitive meaning, not on the provisional meaning; and (iv) reliance on the transcendent wisdom of deep experience, not on mere knowledge.”
― Renuka Singh, The Dalai Lama's Book Of Daily Meditations: The Path to Tranquillity

“MAY 23 MANY PEOPLE THINK that to be patient in bearing loss is a sign of weakness. I think this is a mistake. It is anger that is a sign of weakness, whereas patience is a sign of strength. For example, a person arguing a point based on sound reasoning remains confident and may even smile while proving his case. On the other hand, if his reasons are unsound and he is about to lose face, he gets angry, loses control and starts talking nonsense. People rarely get angry if they are confident in what they are doing. Anger comes more easily in moments of confusion.”
― Renuka Singh, The Dalai Lama's Book Of Daily Meditations: The Path to Tranquillity

“MAY 22 YOU SHOULD SEE that all the external dirt and dust around you is basically a manifestation of the faults and stains within your mind. The most important aim is to purge these stains and faults from within your mind. Therefore, as you cleanse the environment, think that you are also purifying your mind.”
― Renuka Singh, The Dalai Lama's Book Of Daily Meditations: The Path to Tranquillity

“MAY 21 WE SHOULD NOT be too concerned with our fame or what people say about us, either bad or good, because in reality fame could not make any serious difference to one’s life. Therefore, we should have our priorities right, and seek what is truly of value, what is truly of meaning to our life, not just mere fame, which is, after all, empty sounds. Some individuals sacrifice many of their material possessions, wealth and even their lives to achieve fame. This type of obsession with seeking fame is very childish and is quite foolish.”
― Renuka Singh, The Dalai Lama's Book Of Daily Meditations: The Path to Tranquillity

“MAY 20 WE HAVE GENUINE friendship when it is based on true human feeling, a feeling of closeness in which there is a sense of sharing and connectedness. I would call this type of friendship genuine because it is not affected by the increase or decrease of the individual’s wealth, status, or power. The factor that sustains that friendship is whether or not the two people have mutual feelings of love and affection.”
― Renuka Singh, The Dalai Lama's Book Of Daily Meditations: The Path to Tranquillity

“MAY 19 COMPASSION CAN BE roughly defined in terms of a state of mind that is non-violent and non-harming, or non-aggressive. Because of this there is a danger of confusing compassion with attachment and intimacy.”
― Renuka Singh, The Dalai Lama's Book Of Daily Meditations: The Path to Tranquillity

“MAY 17 IT IS THROUGH listening that your mind will turn with faith and devotion, and you will be able to cultivate joy within your mind and make your mind stable. It is through listening that you will be able to cultivate wisdom and be able to remove ignorance. Therefore, it is worthwhile to engage in listening even if it costs your life. Listening is like a torch that dispels the darkness of ignorance. And if you are able to make your mental continuum wealthy through listening, no one can steal that wealth. It is supreme wealth.”
― Renuka Singh, The Dalai Lama's Book Of Daily Meditations: The Path to Tranquillity

“MAY 12 I MYSELF STILL occasionally become irritated and angry and use harsh words towards others. Then, a few moments later when the anger has subsided, I feel embarrassed; the negative words are already spoken, and there is no way to take them back. Although the words have been uttered and the sound of the voice has ceased to exist, their impact still lives on. Hence, the only thing I can do is to go to the person and apologize, isn’t that right?”
― Renuka Singh, The Dalai Lama's Book Of Daily Meditations: The Path to Tranquillity

“MAY 8 IN THE TIBETAN medical system disorders of the flesh are related to ignorance, disorders of the bones to anger, and disorders of the blood to attachment.”
― Renuka Singh, The Dalai Lama's Book Of Daily Meditations: The Path to Tranquillity

“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. As individuals and nations are becoming increasingly interdependent, we have no other choice than to develop what I call a sense of universal responsibility.”
― Renuka Singh, The Dalai Lama's Book Of Daily Meditations: The Path to Tranquillity

“MAY 1 THE VERY PURPOSE of religion is to control yourself, not to criticize others. Rather, we must criticize ourselves. How much am I doing about my anger? About my attachment, about my hatred, about my pride, my jealousy? These are the things which we must check in daily life.”
― Renuka Singh, The Dalai Lama's Book Of Daily Meditations: The Path to Tranquillity

“APRIL 30 NOWADAYS THE WORLD is becoming increasingly materialistic, and mankind is reaching towards the very zenith of external progress, driven by an insatiable desire for power and vast possessions. Yet by this vain striving for perfection in a world where everything is relative, they wander ever further away from inward peace and happiness of the mind. This we can all bear witness to, living as we do plagued by unremitting anxiety in this dreadful epoch of mammoth weapons. It becomes more and more imperative that the life of the spirit be avowed as the only firm basis upon which to establish happiness and peace.”
― Renuka Singh, The Dalai Lama's Book Of Daily Meditations: The Path to Tranquillity

“APRIL 26 PEOPLE WHO FIGHT with other human beings out of anger, hatred and strong emotion, even if they gain victory over their enemies in battle, are not in reality true heroes. What they are doing is slaying corpses, because human beings, being transient, will die. Whether or not these enemies die in the battle is another question, but they will die at some point. So, in reality, they are slaying those already destined to die. The true hero is the one who gains victory over hatred and anger.”
― Renuka Singh, The Dalai Lama's Book Of Daily Meditations: The Path to Tranquillity

“ONE OF THE things that meditation teaches us, when we slowly descend into ourselves, is that the sense of peace already exists in us. We all have a deep desire for it even if it’s often hidden, masked, thwarted. If we examine human nature carefully, it is good, well disposed, helpful. And it seems to me that nowadays the spirit of harmony is increasing, that our desire to live together calmly is growing stronger and stronger; it’s more and more widespread.”
― Renuka Singh, The Dalai Lama's Book Of Daily Meditations: The Path to Tranquillity

“IF WE ARE very forbearing, then something we would normally consider very painful will not appear so bad after all. But without patient endurance, even the smallest thing becomes unbearable. A lot depends on our attitude.”
― Renuka Singh, The Dalai Lama's Book Of Daily Meditations: The Path to Tranquillity

“APRIL 17 WHATEVER WE SAY, let us speak clearly and to the point, in a voice that is calm and pleasant, unaffected by attachment or hatred. Look kindly at others, thinking : It is thanks to them that I shall attain Buddhahood.”
― Renuka Singh, The Dalai Lama's Book Of Daily Meditations: The Path to Tranquillity

“THREE QUALITIES ENABLE people to understand the teachings: objectivity, which means an open mind; intelligence, which is the critical faculty to discern the real meaning by checking the teachings of Buddha; and interest and commitment, which means enthusiasm.”
― Renuka Singh, The Dalai Lama's Book Of Daily Meditations: The Path to Tranquillity

“APRIL 9 TAKING YOUR OWN body and mind as the laboratory, engage in some thoroughgoing research on your own mental functioning, and examine the possibility of making some positive changes within yourself.”
― Renuka Singh, The Dalai Lama's Book Of Daily Meditations: The Path to Tranquillity

“IT SEEMS TO me that Western science and Eastern philosophy can join together to create a really complete and full-fledged human being. It is only in this way that man will emerge strengthened from his condition and become whole. What in fact interests me is what is beyond matter and awareness, what really is important and what makes us what we are.”
― Renuka Singh, The Dalai Lama's Book Of Daily Meditations: The Path to Tranquillity

“THE OBSERVATION THAT good people suffer, and evil people keep enjoying benefits and recognition, is short-sighted. Also, this kind of conclusion might have been made in haste. If one analyses carefully, one finds that troublemakers are definitely not happy. It is better to behave well and take responsibility for one’s actions, and lead a positive life.”
― Renuka Singh, The Dalai Lama's Book Of Daily Meditations: The Path to Tranquillity

“IN OUR WORLD, we need a clear awareness of the interdependent nature of nations, of humans and animals, and of humans, animals and the world. Everthing is of interdependent nature. I feel that many problems, especially man-made problems, are due to a lack of knowledge about this interdependent nature.”
― Renuka Singh, The Dalai Lama's Book Of Daily Meditations: The Path to Tranquillity

“MARCH 23 FOR A BODHISATTVA to be successful in accomplishing the practice of the six perfections — generosity, ethical discipline, tolerance, joyous effort, concentration and wisdom — cooperation with, and kindness towards, fellow beings are extremely important.”
― Renuka Singh, The Dalai Lama's Book Of Daily Meditations: The Path to Tranquillity

“THE IMAGE WE have of ourselves readily tends to be complacent. We look at ourselves with indulgence. When something unpleasant happens to us, we always have the tendency to cast the blame on others, or on fate, a demon, or a god. We shrink from descending into ourselves, as the Buddha recommended.”
― Renuka Singh, The Dalai Lama's Book Of Daily Meditations: The Path to Tranquillity

“ACCORDING TO THE Latin root of the word, ‘religion’ would mean ‘to bind again’. Now how does the concept of binding or tying up come to be applied as the common term for all our various teachings? The common enemy of all religious disciplines, the target of all moral precepts laid down by the great teachers of mankind, is selfishness of mind. For it is just this which causes ignorance, anger and passion which are at the root of all the troubles of the world.”
― Renuka Singh, The Dalai Lama's Book Of Daily Meditations: The Path to Tranquillity