Dalai Lama Quotes about Suffering

We often add to our pain and suffering by being overly sensitive, over-reacting to minor things, and sometimes taking things too personally.

We often add to our pain and suffering by being overly sensitive, over-reacting to minor things, and sometimes taking things too personally.

Dalai Lama

Pain, Positivity, Suffering

Dalai Lama (2009). “The Art of Happiness, 10th Anniversary Edition: A Handbook for Living”, p.112, Penguin

Compassion is the wish to see others free from suffering.

Dalai Lama

Compassion, Suffering, Wish

Dalai Lama, Paul Ekman, Ph.D. (2008). “Emotional Awareness: Overcoming the Obstacles to Psychological Balance and Compassion”, p.163, Macmillan

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.

Dalai Lama

Inspirational, Difficult Situations, Suffering

Dalai Lama (2009). “The Art of Happiness, 10th Anniversary Edition: A Handbook for Living”, p.112, Penguin

Do not think only of your own joy, but vow to save all beings from suffering. This is sharing in its highest form and purity beyond all poisons of this world.

Dalai Lama

Thinking, Joy, Suffering

Under the bright sun, many of us are gathered together with different languages, different styles of dress, even different faiths. However, all of us are the same in being humans, and we all uniquely have the thought of 'I' and we're all the same in wanting happiness and in wanting to avoid suffering.

Dalai Lama

Ego, Style, Suffering

Suffering increases your inner strength. Also, the wishing for suffering makes the suffering disappear.

Dalai Lama

Suffering, Inner Strength, Wish

His Holiness The Dalai Lama (1998). “Path To Tranquility”, p.42, Penguin Books India

Whether we like it or not, we have all been born into this world as part of one great human family. Rich or poor, educated or uneducated, belonging to one nation or another, to one religion or another, adhering to this ideology or that, ultimately each of is just a human being like everyone else. We all desire happiness and do not want suffering.

Dalai Lama

Rich Or Poor, Suffering, Desire

Just as compassion is the wish that all sentient beings be free of suffering, loving-kindness is the wish that all may enjoy happiness.

Dalai Lama

Kindness, Compassion, Suffering

The Dalai Lama, Nicholas Vreeland (2002). “An Open Heart: Practicing Compassion in Everyday Life”, p.39, Hachette UK

If others are happy, we will be happy. If others suffer, ultimately we all suffer.

Dalai Lama

Helping Others, Suffering, Helping

We are all basically the same human beings, who seek happiness and try to avoid suffering. Everybody is my peer group. Your feeling "I am of no value" is wrong. Absolutely wrong.

Dalai Lama

Essence, Feelings, Suffering

No matter what part of the world we come from, we are all basically the same human beings. We all seek happiness and try to avoid suffering. We have the same basic human needs and concerns. All of us human beings want freedom and the right to determine our own destiny as individuals and as peoples. That is human nature.

Dalai Lama

Destiny, Suffering, Trying

The 14th Dalai Lama's Acceptance Speech, on the occasion of the award of the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway, www.nobelprize.org. December 10, 1989.

The three types of misery are the misery of suffering, the misery of change, and pervasive misery.

Dalai Lama

Change, Suffering, Three

Just as you have the instinctive natural desire to be happy and overcome suffering, so do all sentient beings; just as you have the right to fulfill this innate aspiration, so do all sentient beings. So on what exact grounds do you discriminate?

Dalai Lama

Suffering, Desire, Overcoming

It is not just a person's physical constitution, their intellegence, their education, or even their social conditioning that enables them to withstand hardship. Much more significant is their inner development. And while some may be able to survive through sheer willpower, the ones who suffer the least are those who have a high degree of patience and courage in the face of adversity.

Dalai Lama

Adversity, Suffering, Degrees

When we encounter suffering, it is important to respond w/ compassion rather than to question the politics of those we help.

Dalai Lama

Compassion, Suffering, Important

It is important not to allow ourselves to be put off by the magnitude of others' suffering. The misery of millions is not a cause for pity. Rather it is a cause for compassion.

Dalai Lama

Compassion, Suffering, Important

The Dalai Lama, Alexander Norman (2010). “Ancient Wisdom, Modern World: Ethics for the New Millennium”, p.75, Hachette UK

We must recognize that the suffering of one person or one nation is the suffering of humanity.

Dalai Lama

Inspirational, Humanity, Suffering

I am the source of my own suffering, because of the habits of my mind.

Dalai Lama

Mind, Suffering, Habit

Our attitude towards suffering becomes very important because it can affect how we cope with suffering when it arises.

Dalai Lama

Attitude, Suffering, Important

Dalai Lama (2009). “The Art of Happiness, 10th Anniversary Edition: A Handbook for Living”, p.105, Penguin

To a large extent, whether you suffer depends on how you respond to a given situation.

Dalai Lama

Suffering, Given, Situation

Dalai Lama (2009). “The Art of Happiness, 10th Anniversary Edition: A Handbook for Living”, p.112, Penguin

Within the framework of the Buddhist Path, reflecting on suffering has tremendous importance because -realizing the nature of suffering, you will develop greater resolve to put an end to the causes of suffering and the unwholesome deeds which lead to suffering. And it will increase your enthusiasm for engaging in the wholesome actions and deeds which lead to happiness and joy.

Dalai Lama

Buddhist, Joy, Suffering

It is my fundamental belief that all human beings share the same basic aspirations: that we all want hapiness and that we all share suffering. Asians, just like Americans, Europeans, and the rest of the world, share a desire to live life to its fullest, to better ourselves and the lives of our loved ones.

Dalai Lama

Live Life, Suffering, Desire

We are the creators of our own happiness and suffering, for everything originates in the mind.

Dalai Lama

Mind, Suffering, Creator

I think the person who has had more experience of hardships can stand more firmly in the face of problems than the person who has never experienced suffering. From this angle then, some suffering can be a good lesson for life.

Dalai Lama

Thinking, Suffering, Hardship

Dalai Lama XIV (2002). “Illustrated Teachings of the Dalai Lama”