Dalai Lama Quotes

I hate how hard spiritual transformation is and how long it takes. I hate thinking about how many people have gone to church for decades and remain joyless or judgmental or bitter or superior.

Consciously be sensitive to others, and try to elevate their level of consciousness. Don't do this by being preachy and telling them that they 'should' do this or that. Do it by raising your own level of energy and recognizing what's best in others.

Fortunately analysis is not the only way to resolve inner conflicts. Life itself still remains a very effective therapist.

That's the way I try to live. I think it's the only way for human beings at this point in our evolution as souls, where everyone in their lifetime is going through stuff.

Compassion is the key to living outside the confines of your lower self.

When you practice Buddhism, you have to always self-reflect, and you can't avoid your problems. That makes me understand human beings better. I feel that the more I do that in my own life, the more I can see how to play a character.

I think that there is a tragic misfit at the core of me, and I've just done a lot of work on myself. I love a good self-help book; I've read a ton of them. I love self-help seminars and therapy and all that.

I believe the more important thing is your mind and your heart. Those two things are the most ignored parts of our beings.

The great solution to all human problems is individual inner transformation.

The mindfulness revolution is not quite as dramatic as the moon shot or the civil rights movement, but I believe, in the long run, it can have just as great an impact.

I met with my spiritual teacher and went to a therapist. I realized that if I came from a positive place, not only will everyone feel better and I will feel happier, but the company will work better.

I'm getting stronger as a person, but sometimes I just need to get over myself!

I always used to be like, 'I don't need to meditate.' And it's not true.

Awareness is the key. Do we see the stories that we're telling ourselves and question their validity? When we are distracted by strong emotion, do we remember that it is our path? Can we feel the emotion and breathe it into our hearts for ourselves and everyone else? If we can remember to experiment like this even occasionally, we are training as a warrior. And when we can't practice when distracted but KNOW we can't, we are still training well. Never underestimate the power of compassionately recognizing what's going on.

True greatness depends on total wisdom. The real lesson is to learn to love.

Always try to understand and educate yourselves on the reasons why Allah has given you life, do that part first then enjoy the rest of life and chill out.

If a man is to shed the light of the sun upon other men, he must first of all have it within himself.

We do know that no one gets wise enough to really understand the heart of another, though it is the task of our life to try.

As we learn to bow, we discover that the heart holds more freedom and compassion than we could imagine.

The older I get, the more I realize the importance of exercising the various dimensions of my body, soul, mind, and heart. Taken together, these aspects give me a sense of wholeness. I want to be a whole human being rather than one who limps on one leg because I don't know how to use all of my parts. Intellectual, emotional, and physical activity are not separate entities. Rather, they are dimensions of the same human being.

We must each achieve greater individual consciousness and self-knowledge, and project mindful kindness toward everything and everyone.

I was creative before I started meditating, but I had, looking back, a weakness. I wasn't self-assured. I had a little bit of melancholy. I had a lot of anger for my situations in life, and I would take this out on my first wife.

What is tragic today is that there is a number of Muslims who think that all the solutions are to be found simply by external actions. They don't have to do anything within themselves. This is a deeply Western idea - modern, Western idea, where you try to improve the world without improving yourself. And this is what the Muslims who talk about others putting their heads in the sand and that "We are doing jihad and we are political" and so forth, they are emulating a very important mistake of modernism.

When they attack you and you notice that you love them with all your heart, your Work is done.

Each of us needs to eliminate our anger, fear and greed. The roots of social conflicts and political tensions are in personal anger, fear and greed.