Happy Birthday to His Holiness The Dalai Lama

Tenzin Gyatso, His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, Tibet’s spiritual leader turns 76 today. The Nobel Peace Prize Winner (1989) is certainly one of the most spiritually influential people in the world today. He has spent his lifetime not only advocating the plight of the Tibetan community (he has been exiled since 1959), but promoting inter-religious harmony, pleading for world peace, and promoting human rights.

Regardless of any political or religious views that I may have, I have always respected and admired the Dalai Lama. Look at any picture of the man and what do you see…..Yes, he is a charismatic man, but there always seems to be a sense of inner peace, acceptance, gentleness, happiness, playfullness and tranquility that I admire the most. While I strive to bring these qualities to my daily life, I must admit, it is a struggle! Hopefully I can learn by his example!

In honor of his birthday I would like to share some of his quotes on happiness:

• The purpose of existence is to seek happiness.
• Happiness is determined more by one’s state of mind than external events.
• Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.
• If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.
• If you maintain a feeling of compassion, loving kindness than something automatically opens your inner door. Through that, you can communicate much more easily with other people. And that feeling of warmth creates a kind of openness.
• Our feelings of contentment are strongly influenced by our tendency to compare.
• We don’t need more money, we don’t need greater success or fame, we don’t need the perfect body or even the perfect mate-right now at this moment, we have a mind, which is all the basic equipment we need to achieve complete happiness.
• Inner peace is the ultimate source of happiness.
• The turning-toward happiness as a valid goal and the conscious decision to seek happiness in a systematic manner can profoundly change the rest of our lives.

  May His Holiness and you have a happy, peaceful and inspirational day!