Quotes of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama

“Of course, for practicing Buddhists, compassion is a vitally important element of the spiritual path. In general, the more compassion and altruism a person has, the greater their readiness to work for the well-being of other beings. Even if they are pursuing personal interests, the stronger their compassion, the greater their courage and resolve will be. All the world's religions agree that compassion plays an important role. They not only praise compassion but also devote great attention to promoting it in human society. In the teachings of all the major religions we will find a variety of practical methods for cultivating compassion. Of course, the philosophies and metaphysics of different religions differ, and owing to the diversity of views there are certain divergences in how they define compassion and how they understand the scope of this concept. All the great traditions, however, are unanimous that compassion is of key importance, and that the practices associated with it lead to the development of our innate capacity for empathy and for sympathizing with the suffering of others.”