5 Quotes of Dalai Lama About Kindness That Will Change Your Life
A guide to becoming a kind person
The 85-year-old Buddhist monk Dalai Lama is a living legend of the 21st century. Dalai Lama devoted his life to promoting human values around the world. His teaching on human values and their importance are more relevant in today’s world.
Dalai Lama’s dedication to the virtue of kindness is obvious in his way of life:
“My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.”
Being kind is not just personal development, it is a collective growth of humanistic values such as love, compassion, and friendliness.
Kindness is more needed in today’s time when people at large need each other to understand, empathize, and share each other’s suffering.
The Buddhist philosophy Maitri or Metta meaning loving-kindness is the first of the four sublime states taught by Buddha. The ancient text of Hinduism and Jainism also mentions the importance of kindness, love, and compassion.
“Kindness and a good heart are the foundation for success in this life, progress on the spiritual path, and the fulfillment of our aspirations.”
Remember, as a child, you used to help everyone, regardless of their names, color, or status. It was a pure act of kindness.
Your bitter experiences or exploitation have corrupted the very conception of helping others. It made you skeptical about offering genuine help to any stranger.
Kindness is not a task you go out to perform one day and get a reward for. It comes naturally from the heart, with pure sympathy for others’ suffering.
Being a kind person makes you more empathetic towards others. Others see you as a better human with mutual understanding. You become more appealing to other people.
The right attitude and behavior will get you more opportunities and set a path towards a successful life.
Kindness resonates with spiritual peace and tranquility. It helps you better understand yourself, making you more confident.
“Through your kindness to others, your mind and heart will open to peace.”
In this fast-moving world, we are much concerned about material needs than the spiritual state of mind. We have become consumers of our own longings.
In the race of achieving goals, mental peace and satisfaction are often sacrificed.
The feeling of being useful to others in any form will always surge a sense of pride and self-satisfaction. Helping others or caring for others with no intentions makes you a better person in your eyes and in others.
Helping someone cross the road, carry heavy bags of grocery or giving food to the needy ones, or even just smiling at a stranger. These blissful memories will always be a beacon in the darkness.
The more of these memories build-up, the more you become contented.
As Dalai Lama said, “The more you nurture a feeling of kindness, the happier and calmer you will be.”
“If we remember that others too are human beings like us, we can extend a sense of kindness even towards those we think of as enemies.”
Dalai Lama fought for his land before turning a refugee in India. He talked with the Chinese for peaceful resolution and dialogues.
The sense of fraternity has lost its way in categorization and groupings. Others are humans are like us, they eat like us; they breathe like us. They cry and they bleed like us.
And it does not matter if they don’t like us or they are enemies, they are still fellow humans. Kindness does not filter out anyone, it just flows from one heart to another.
Practicing compassion and kindness is not cowardice, it takes a courageous heart to accept others and empathize with them. If we understand each other, we can extend the sense of kindness or express love and compassion.
In Dalai Lama’s words, “If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.”
“Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible”
Being kind does not need a transformation of life or change in way of thinking. It is an aspect of human nature that needs no special implementation.
We often ignore people’s suffering. We value our time more than caring for people’s problems or even listen to them. There may be many reasons, or more accurately excuses, to not reaching out to the people in need.
Kindness should flow like a river without worrying about its path or destination. It is always possible. There should not be any excuses or reasons to be kind.
It does not need a place, time, or conditions to be a kind person. Be kind wherever or whenever, or in whatever form needed.
“Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive.”
Our lives have become slaves of our dreams and desires. We are so self-consumed in our achievements we forgot the very basic virtue that makes us what we are. Humanity.
We call ourselves humans, not because we live together, but because we care for each other's value in the world. Love, compassion, and kindness are the symbols of humanity.
Our shared values of love and compassion towards each other make us human. And if we let go of these values, hostility towards each other may increase. Eventually, we might lose our only identity, humanity.
How To Be Kind:
Being kind is not a specialty, it does not require any exercise or particular efforts. It requires opening your heart and your mind for others.
Dalai Lama himself expressed the simplicity of kindness,
“This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.”
Start with little.
- Listen to people
- Understand their problems and their feelings
- Help others without worrying about personal gains
- Express gratitude to others, even if not needed
- Make friends, genuinely, not for any benefits
- Share smiles whenever possible
- Treat everyone as a fellow human
Change your perspective to realize others’ problems, sympathize with them, and ensure your support to them.
“Whether one believes in a religion or not and whether one believes in rebirth or not. There isn’t anyone who doesn’t appreciate kindness and compassion.” — Dalai Lama
In the time of Corona-virus kindness, love and compassion are much needed to share the suffering and thrive towards a better society.
We can not expect any third entity to elevate every human life and eventually make everyone happy. Our problems must be solved by ourselves, collectively.
Thank you for reading. Have a nice day.