Dalai Lama Quotes

I think of compassion as the fundamental religious experience and, unless that is there, you have nothing.

Religion is to do right. It is to love, it is to serve, it is to think, it is to be humble.

The essence of true religious teaching is that one should serve and befriend all.

When I say it's you I like, I'm talking about that part of you that knows that life is far more than anything you can ever see or hear or touch. That deep part of you that allows you to stand for those things without which humankind cannot survive. Love that conquers hate, peace that rises triumphant over war, and justice that proves more powerful than greed.

A religious man is a person... whose greatest passion is compassion.

I always try to share with others the idea that in order to become compassionate it is not necessary to become religious.

But I think humans are innately religious as a species, so you don't need a specific excuse for examining the perversely unholy.

Love and kindness are the basis of my religious beliefs. The rituals and outward signs are not as important as one's actions and deeds. Religion should be a path to God, not something to fight about.

Strive to make every person feel special. After all, every person you meet is made in the image of God.

It is the other way round: food cannot make you spiritual, but if you are spiritual your food habits will change. Eating anything will not make much difference. You can be a vegetarian and cruel to the extreme, and violent; you can be a non-vegetarian and kind and loving. Food will not make much difference. In India there are communities who have lived totally with vegetarian food; many Brahmins have lived totally with vegetarian food. They are non-violent but they are not spiritual.

This is one of the goals of the Jewish way of living: to experience commonplace deeds as spiritual adventures, to feel the hidden love and wisdom in all things.

Religious awe is the same organic thrill which we feel in a forest at twilight, or in a mountain gorge.

The serious person becomes handicapped, he creates barriers. He cannot dance, he cannot sing, he cannot celebrate. The very dimension of celebration disappears from his life. He becomes desert-like. And if you are a desert, you can go on thinking and pretending that you are religious but you are not.

There is a spiritual aspect to our lives - when we give, we receive-when a business does something good for somebody, that somebody feels good about them!

Above all I commend the study of Christ. Let Him be your library.

The essence of all religions is love, compassion and tolerance. Kindness is my true religion. No matter whether you are learned or not, whether you believe in the next life or not, whether you believe in God or Buddha or some other religion or not, in day-to-day life you must be a kind person.

Christianity is hard when we try to serve God in man's way instead of serving God in God's way.

You can't celebrate gifts without celebrating the giver of all gifts.

In this modern world of ours many people seem to think that science has somehow made such religious ideas as immortality untimely or old fashioned. I think science has a real surprise for the skeptics. Science, for instance, tells us that nothing in nature, not even the tiniest particle, can disappear without a trace. Nature does not know extinction. All it knows is transformation. If God applies this fundamental principle to the most minute and insignificant parts of His universe, doesn't it make sense to assume that He applies it to the masterpiece of His creation, the human soul?

It is possible that the next Buddha will not take the form of an individual. The next Buddha may take the form of a community -a community practicing understanding and loving kindness, a community practicing mindful living. This may be the most important thing we can do for the survival of the earth.

I think human beings are almost, by definition, religious people,in the sense that we ask questions of meaning, we anticipate future events, we deal with the issues of mortality from the first time we see a dead bird as a little child.

A Christian brings peace to others. Not only peace, but also love, kindness, faithfulness and joy.

A life is measured by how it is lived for the sake of heaven.

Yet, if he would, man cannot live all to this world. If not religious, he will be superstitious. IF he worship not the true God, he will have his idols.

You will have found Christ when you are concerned with other people’s sufferings and not your own.