Quotes from The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World

“There’s a Tibetan saying: ‘Wherever you have friends that’s your country, and wherever you receive love, that’s your home.”
― Dalai Lama XIV, quote from The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World

“The more time you spend thinking about yourself, the more suffering you will experience.”
― Dalai Lama XIV, quote from The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World

“When you are grateful,' Brother Steindl-Rast explained, 'you are not fearful, and when you are not fearful, you are not violent. When you are grateful, you act out of a sense of enough and not out of a sense of scarcity, and you are willing to share. If you are grateful, you are enjoying the differences between people and respectful to all people. The grateful world is a world of joyful people. Grateful people are joyful people. A grateful world is a happy world.”
― Dalai Lama XIV, quote from The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World

“We create most of our suffering, so it should be logical that we also have the ability to create more joy. It simply depends on the attitudes, the perspectives, and the reactions we bring to situations and to our relationships with other people. When it comes to personal happiness there is a lot that we as individuals can do.” •”
― Dalai Lama XIV, quote from The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World

“Why be unhappy about something if it can be remedied? And what is the use of being unhappy if it cannot be remedied?”
― Dalai Lama XIV, quote from The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World

“The Dead Sea in the Middle East receives fresh water, but it has no outlet, so it doesn't pass the water out. It receives beautiful water from the rivers, and the water goes dank. I mean, it just goes bad. And that's why it is the Dead Sea. It receives and does not give. In the end generosity is the best way of becoming more, more, and more joyful.”
― Dalai Lama XIV, quote from The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World

“Seek to be an oasis of caring and concern as you live your life.”
― Dalai Lama XIV, quote from The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World

“Wherever you have friends that’s your country, and wherever you receive love, that’s your home.”
― Dalai Lama XIV, quote from The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World

“If you are setting out to be joyful you are not going to end up being joyful. You’re going to find yourself turned in on yourself. It’s like a flower. You open, you blossom, really because of other people. And I think some suffering, maybe even intense suffering, is a necessary ingredient for life, certainly for developing compassion.”
― Dalai Lama XIV, quote from The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World

“There are going to be frustrations in life. The question is not: How do I escape? It is: How can I use this as something positive?”
― Dalai Lama XIV, quote from The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World

“the three factors that seem to have the greatest influence on increasing our happiness are our ability to reframe our situation more positively, our ability to experience gratitude, and our choice to be kind and generous.”
― Dalai Lama XIV, quote from The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World

“What the Dalai Lama and I are offering,” the Archbishop added, “is a way of handling your worries: thinking about others. You can think about others who are in a similar situation or perhaps even in a worse situation, but who have survived, even thrived. It does help quite a lot to see yourself as part of a greater whole.” Once again, the path of joy was connection and the path of sorrow was separation. When we see others as separate, they become a threat. When we see others as part of us, as connected, as interdependent, then there is no challenge we cannot face—together.”
― Dalai Lama XIV, quote from The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World

“Discovering more joy does not, save us from th inevitability of hardship and heartbreak. In fact, we may cry more easily, but we will laugh more easily too. Perhaps we are just more alive. Yet as we discover more joy, we can face suffering in a way that ennobles rather than embitters. We have hardship without becoming hard. We have heartbreaks without being broken.”
― Dalai Lama XIV, quote from The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World

“Suffering is inevitable, they said, but how we respond to that suffering is our choice. Not even oppression or occupation can take away this freedom to choose our response. Right”
― Dalai Lama XIV, quote from The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World

“According to Lyubomirsky, the three factors that seem to have the greatest influence on increasing our happiness are our ability to reframe our situation more positively, our ability to experience gratitude, and our choice to be kind and generous. These”
― Dalai Lama XIV, quote from The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World

“I think that the scientists are right,” the Dalai Lama concluded. “People who are always laughing have a sense of abandon and ease. They are less likely to have a heart attack than those people who are really serious and who have difficulty connecting with other people. Those serious people are in real danger.” “We”
― Dalai Lama XIV, quote from The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World

“Something is lacking. As one of the seven billion human beings, I believe everyone has the responsibility to develop a happier world. We need, ultimately, to have a greater concern for others’ well-being. In other words, kindness or compassion, which is lacking now. We must pay more attention to our inner values. We must look inside.” He”
― Dalai Lama XIV, quote from The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World

“Much depends on your attitude. If you are filled with negative judgment and anger, then you will feel separate from other people. You will feel lonely. But if you have an open heart and are filled with trust and friendship, even if you are physically alone, even living a hermit’s life, you will never feel lonely.”
― Dalai Lama XIV, quote from The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World

“Marriages, even the best ones—perhaps especially the best ones—are an ongoing process of spoken and unspoken forgiveness. •”
― Dalai Lama XIV, quote from The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World

“One of my practices comes from an ancient Indian teacher. He taught that when you experience some tragic situation, think about it. If there’s no way to overcome the tragedy, then there is no use worrying too much. So I practice that. (The Dalai Lama was referring to the eighth-century Buddhist master Shantideva, who wrote, “If something can be done about the situation, what need is there for dejection? And if nothing can be done about it, what use is there for being dejected?”)”
― Dalai Lama XIV, quote from The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World

“We are fragile creatures, and it is from this weakness, not despite it, that we discover the possibility of true joy.”
― Dalai Lama XIV, quote from The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World

“Meditative practice allows us to quiet the distracting thoughts and feelings so that we can perceive reality, and respond to it more skillfully. The ability to be present in each moment is nothing more and nothing less than the ability to accept the vulnerability, discomfort, and anxiety of everyday life. “With”
― Dalai Lama XIV, quote from The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World

“It probably takes many years of monastic practice to equal the spiritual growth generated by one sleepless night with a sick child.”
― Dalai Lama XIV, quote from The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World

“courage: “I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. I felt fear more times than I can remember, but I hid it behind a mask of boldness. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”
― Dalai Lama XIV, quote from The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World

“One of the key paradoxes in Buddhism is that we need goals to be inspired, to grow, and to develop, even to become enlightened, but at the same time we must not get overly fixated or attached to these aspirations. If the goal is noble, your commitment to the goal should not be contingent on your ability to attain it, and in pursuit of our goal, we must release our rigid assumptions about how we must achieve it. Peace and equanimity come from letting go of our attachment to the goal and the method. That is the essence of acceptance. Reflecting”
― Dalai Lama XIV, quote from The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World

“Joy is the reward, really, of seeking to give joy to others. When you show compassion, when you show caring, when you show love to others, do things for others, in a wonderful way you have a deep joy that you can get in no other way. You can’t buy it with money. You can be the richest person on Earth, but if you care only about yourself, I can bet my bottom dollar you will not be happy and joyful. But when you are caring, compassionate, more concerned about the welfare of others than about your own, wonderfully, wonderfully, you suddenly feel a warm glow in your heart, because you have, in fact, wiped the tears from the eyes of another. “Why”
― Dalai Lama XIV, quote from The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World

“There’s a Tibetan saying: ‘Wherever you have friends that’s your country, and wherever you receive love, that’s your home.’” There”
― Dalai Lama XIV, quote from The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World

“As the Dalai Lama put it, “In fact, taking care of others, helping others, ultimately is the way to discover your own joy and to have a happy life.” The”
― Dalai Lama XIV, quote from The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World

“You must not hate those who do harmful things. The compassionate thing is to do what you can to stop them--for they are harming themselves as well as those who suffer from their actions.”
― Dalai Lama XIV, quote from The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World

“You show your humanity by how you see yourself not as apart from others but from your connection to others.”
― Dalai Lama XIV, quote from The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World

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