Daily Dalai Lama Quotes

In the practice of altruism, the most efficacious way to help others is through teaching what should be adopted in practice and what should be discarded from current behavior.

Desire cannot be fulfilled. Moreover, when you are desiring, desiring, desiring, you face many obstacles, disappointments, unhappiness, and difficulties. Great desire not only knows no end but also itself creates trouble.

Sooner or later death will come. We do not want it, but once we are under the influence of contaminated actions and afflictive emotions, it will definitely come. If right from the beginning you think about death and prepare fully, such preparation can help when death actually comes.

Our planet is our house, and we must keep it in order and take care of it if we are genuinely concerned about happiness for ourselves, our children, our friends, and other sentient beings who share this great house with us.

Once you believe in the relationship between actions and their effects, whether there is an external policeman or not, you will always be alert and examine yourself.

Great compassion is the root of altruistic action, the object of amazement to the world; there is no greater source of help and happiness.

In ordinary life, some people are more successful than others for no obvious reason. We just say that he or she is lucky, but these are instances of the working of positive karma.

Since the cycle of existence has no beginning, there is no sentient being we can point to and say, "That person has not been my mother in the past." Not only have they been our mothers in the past, but they will also be our mothers in the future.

If humankind continues to approach its problems from the perspective of temporary expediency, future generations will face tremendous difficulties.

You must build your basic mental attitude in a healthy way, like in the case of a healthy body. If the immune system is strong, then some virus or germs can't disturb you much. So similarly, your mental attitude has to be calm, then if some disturbance comes, even if some negative emotions come, they remain for a very short period. All the emotions remain on the surface, and do not disturb much in depth.

There is no sense in being attached to this lifetime. No matter how long we live, which can be at most around one hundred years, eventually we must die, losing this valuable human life. Furthermore, it is indefinite when that will be—it could be at any time.

Note your attachments to food, clothes, and shelter and adapt monastic practices of contentment to a layperson's life. Be satisfied with adequate food, clothing, and shelter. Use the additional free time for meditation so that you can overcome more problems.

Children always look to their parents. Parents should be more calm. You can teach children that you face a lot of problems, but you must react to those problems with a calm mind and reason.

Initially it might prove quite difficult to generate any experience of compassion for all beings, but once you begin to develop it, it will become firm, genuine, and unshakeable, because it is based on a firm foundation of knowledge and reason.

Some Westerners follow Tibetan Buddhism and adopt the dress—this is too extreme. The important thing is to take the spiritual aspects and not the cultural side.

Physically you are a human being, but mentally you are incomplete. Given that we have this physical human form, we must safeguard our mental capacity for judgement. For that, we cannot take out insurance; the insurance company is within: self-discipline, self-awareness, and a clear realisation of the disadvantages of anger and the positive effects of kindness.

Think of morality, concentrated meditation, and wisdom as a blueprint for enlightenment, reminding us of the highest aim of practice—a transformation of attitude toward peacefulness, compassion, calm focus and wisdom.