The Dalai Lama's 30 best quotes on happiness, life, love

30 quotes by the Dalai Lama that answer the ultimate questions – about meaning, happiness and love

Ekaterina Saleeva

November 9, 2023, 17:30 MSC

30 Dalai Lama Quotes on Happiness and Life

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If you’re feeling bad, they’ll help you up. If you feel good, they remind you how important it is to appreciate this moment.

The Dalai Lama is the spiritual leader of the followers of Tibetan Buddhism. He is considered an incarnation of the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara (“Lord who looks graciously upon beings,” “the buddha of compassion”). The current Dalai Lama is his 14th reincarnation.

Dalai Lama XIV is a Nobel Peace Prize winner. His teachings on compassion, mindfulness and inner peace resonate with millions of people around the world. He helps to find answers to the most difficult questions. And more often than not, they turn out to be very simple.

Biography of the Dalai Lama

The future spiritual leader was born in a small village near Tibet in 1935. His family was poor and had many children. At birth, the Dalai Lama XIV was given the name Lhamo Dhondrub. From Tibetan it translates as “wish-fulfilling goddess”. There is nothing surprising in this: in Asian countries, when choosing names, they do not take into account the sex of the baby. The Dalai Lama has repeatedly joked about this fact of his biography.

At the age of two, the fate of young Lhamo Dhondrub changed radically. He was spotted by a group of Buddhist monks. After the death of Dalai Lama XIII, they were in search of a new spiritual teacher whose soul had regained a human body. A little boy named Lhamo Dhondruba caught the monks’ attention.

Dalai Lama

They conducted a series of tests to prove that the found child was a future spiritual teacher. The monks unanimously decided that a new Dalai Lama had been found. He was taken by his family and began to be trained in religious studies.

Three years later, at the age of five, the future spiritual guide of millions of followers of Buddhism became the head of the Tibetan state. But after 10 years of rule, he was dethroned after the Chinese Communist Party entered the country.

The Dalai Lama left Tibet and went to India. There he still lives. Now the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists is 87 years old.

The Dalai Lama’s ideas

The Dalai Lama’s teachings are based on the principles of Buddhism, a philosophy that emphasizes the importance of compassion and the pursuit of inner peace. The Tibetan spiritual leader encourages embracing the innate goodness within oneself and extending it to others. He believes that cultivating a genuine sense of compassion for others is essential to creating a harmonious world.

Awareness is another central theme in the Dalai Lama’s teachings. He encourages people to be fully present in each moment, observing their thoughts and emotions. “By practicing mindfulness, we can develop a deeper understanding of ourselves and the world around us, which will ultimately lead to greater clarity and contentment,” says the Dalai Lama.

He is an unwavering advocate of human rights, social justice. His commitment to nonviolence and peaceful conflict resolution earned the Dalai Lama the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989. Today, he supports scientific discovery, opposes deforestation and the destruction of wildlife.

The Dalai Lama broadcasts his ideas through lectures, books and public speeches. He has inspired many people to lead more meaningful and fulfilling lives, to find joy in every day and to be content with little.

Here are some inspirational quotes from the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism. If you are going through a difficult period in your life, they will help you not to despair. If you are doing well, they will help you understand where you should direct your energy to maximize its benefits.

Dalai Lama Quotes About Life

The purpose of our life is to be happy.

Problems are inherently impermanent – as they come, so they will go.

When a person feels that everything is going wrong in his life, something wonderful tries to come into his life.

By changing your mind, you will change the outside world.

Before you judge someone, take their shoes and walk their path, taste their tears, feel their pains. Come across every stone he has tripped over. And only after that, tell him that you know how to live right.

Be willing to change your goals, but never change your values.

Remember that sometimes not getting what you want is a great good fortune.

The roots of all goodness lie in the soil of appreciation for kindness.

Sometimes silence is the best response.

Our primary purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can’t help them, at least don’t hurt them.

To realize positive action, we must develop a positive vision.

We can never find peace in the outside world until we make peace with ourselves.

The greatest wealth is to live contentedly with little.

Dalai Lama Quotes About Love

Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive.

The more you are motivated by love, the more fearless and free your actions will be.

The highest degree of inner peace comes from developing love and compassion.

If you do not love yourself, you cannot love others.

When we feel love and kindness towards others, it not only makes others feel loved and cared for, but also helps us develop inner happiness and peace.”

If there is love, there is hope that one can have real family, real friendship, real tranquility and real peace.

Dalai Lama Quotes About Happiness

There are hardly any moments in our lives when we are not dependent on others. So it should come as no surprise that human happiness is the result of our relationships with others.