10 Inspirational Quotes from The Art of Happiness
His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, is the jolly Buddha who exudes an aura of joy and happiness. Nearly every time you get a chance to see him, he is either laughing or smiling, which brings the sun of warmth to the people around him.
A Nobel Peace Prize Winner, he advocates compassion and wisdom to promote world peace. Although he is a refugee in India after escaping from Tibet in 1959, he has never expressed his hatred, enmity, and resentment to the Chinese Administration.
In this classic book, The Art of Happiness, His Holiness the Dalai Lama shared his insights with Dr. Howard Cutler, a psychiatrist, on how to derive indestructible happiness and inner peace by defeating anxiety, insecurity, anger, and discouragement through compassion.
Here are 10 inspirational quotes extracted from the book, The Art of Happiness:
Quote #1
“Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive.”
Quote #2
“Compassion can be roughly defined in terms of a state of mind that is nonviolent, nonharming, and nonaggressive. It is a mental attitude based on the wish for others to be free of their suffering and is associated with a sense of commitment, responsibility, and respect towards the other.”
Quote #3
“A disciplined mind leads to happiness and an undisciplined mind leads to suffering, and in fact it is said that bringing about discipline within one’s mind is the essence of the Buddha’s teaching.”
Quote #4
“Although you may not always be able to avoid difficult situations,you can modify the extent to which you can suffer by how you choose to respond to the situation.”
Quote #5
“If we can transform our attitude towards suffering, adopt an attitude that allows us greater tolerance of it, then this can do much to help counteract feelings of mental unhappiness, dissatisfaction, and discontent.”
Quote #6
“Let us reflect what is truly of value in life, what gives meaning to our lives, and set our priorities on the basis of that. The purpose of our life needs to be positive. We weren’t born with the purpose of causing trouble, harming others. For our life to be of value, I think we must develop basic good human qualities—warmth, kindness, compassion. Then our life becomes meaningful and more peaceful—happier.”
Quote #7
“I think that generally, being honest with oneself and others about what you are or are not capable of doing can counteract that feeling of lack of self-confidence.”
Quote #8
“As long as there is a lack of the inner discipline that brings calmness of mind, no matter what external facilities or conditions you have, they will never give you the feeling of joy and happiness that you are seeking. On the other hand, if you possess this inner quality, a calmness of mind, a degree of stability within, then even if you lack various external facilities that you would normally consider necessary for happiness, it is still possible to live a happy and joyful life.”
Quote #9
“Our feelings of contentment are strongly influenced by our tendency to compare.”
Quote #10
“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.”
