Dalai Lama Quotes About Animals

• The creatures that inhabit this earth-be they human beings or animals-are here to contribute, each in its own particular way, to the beauty and prosperity of the world.

  Dalai Lama

  Motivational, Spiritual, Buddhist

  "Dzogchen: Heart Essence of the Great Perfection" by Dalai Lama, Snow Lion Publications, 2004.

• I usually say the aim of life is to be happy. Our existence is based on hope. Our life is rooted in the opportunity to be happy, not necessarily wealthy, but happy within our own minds. If we only indulge in sensory pleasure, we'll be little different from animals. In fact, we have this marvellous brain and intelligence; we must learn to use it.

  Dalai Lama

  Happy, Animal, Opportunity

• We are all here on this planet, as it were, as tourists. None of us can live here forever. The longest we might live is a hundred years. So while we are here we should try to have a good heart and to make something positive and useful of our lives. Whether we live just a few years or a whole century, it would be truly regrettable and sad if we were to spend that time aggravating the problems that afflict other people, animals, and the environment. The most important things is to be a good human being.

  Dalai Lama

  Life Changing, Heart, Animal

  His Holiness The Dalai Lama (1998). “Path To Tranquility”, p.358, Penguin Books India

• Life is as dear to a mute creature as it is to man. Just as one wants happiness and fears pain, just as one wants to live and not die, so do other creatures.

  Dalai Lama

  Pain, Men, Compassion

• Whenever I visit a market and see the chickens crowded together in tiny cages that give them no room to move around and spread their wings and the fish slowly drowning in the air, my heart goes out to them. People have to learn to think about animals in a different way, as sentient beings who love life and fear death. I urge everyone who can to adopt a compassionate vegetarian diet.

  Dalai Lama

  Moving, Heart, Love Life

• Killing animals for sport, for pleasure, for adventure, and for hides and furs is a phenomena which is at once disgusting and distressing. There is no justification in indulging is such acts of brutality.

  Dalai Lama

  Sports, Funny Inspirational, Adventure

• I do not see any reason why animals should be slaughtered to serve as human diet when there are so many substitutes. After all, man can live without meat. It is only some carnivorous animals that have to subsist on flesh. Killing animals for sport, for pleasure, for adventures, and for hides and furs is a phenomenon which is at once disgusting and distressing. There is no justification in indulging in such acts of brutality . . . Life is as dear to a mute creature as it is to a man. Just as one wants happiness and fears pain, just as one wants to live and not to die, so do other creatures.

  Dalai Lama

  Sports, Pain, Adventure

• When I look at birds and animals, their survival is without rules, without conditions, without organization. But mothers take good care of their offspring. That's nature. In human beings also, parents - particularly mothers - and children have a special bond. Mother's milk is a sign of this affection. We are created that way. The child's survival is entirely dependent on someone else's affection. So, basically, each individual's survival or future depends on society. We need these human values.

  Dalai Lama

  Mother, Children, Animal

  Interview with Amitabh Pal, www.sharedhost.progressive.org. January 1, 2006.

• As human beings we each have a responsibility to care for humanity. Expressing concern for others brings inner strength and deep satisfaction. As social animals, human beings need friendship, but friendship doesn't come from wealth and power, but from showing compassion and concern for others.

  Dalai Lama

  Responsibility, Compassion, Animal

• I do not see any reason why animals should be slaughtered to serve as human diet when there are so many substitutes. After all, man can live without meat.

  Dalai Lama

  Men, Animal, Vegetarian Diet

• On love, not harming others, and respecting all beings. Even animals have these elements in their behavioral patterns. We should start by observing how animals act. They are honest and appreciate it when we are honest with them. If you present something nice to an animal in one hand while hiding a rope in the other, the creature will know your intention. Yet animals have no religion, no constitution. Basic nature has endowed them with the faculty of discernment. It is the same for humans.

  Dalai Lama

  Truth, Nice, Animal

• Human beings are not intrinsically selfish, which isolates us from others. We are essentially social animals who depend on others to meet our needs. We achieve happiness, prosperity and progress through social interaction. Therefore, having a kind and helpful attitude contributes to our own and others' happiness.

  Dalai Lama

  Happiness, Buddhist, Attitude

• People think of animals as if they were vegetables, and that is not right. We have to change the way people think about animals. I encourage the Tibetan people and all people to move toward a vegetarian diet that doesn’t cause suffering.

  Dalai Lama

  Moving, Animal, Thinking

• If the basic human nature was aggressive, we would have been born with animal claws & huge teeth -- but ours are very short, very pretty, very weak! That means we are not well equipped to be aggressive beings. Even the size of our mouth is very small. So I think the basic nature of human beings should be gentle.

  Dalai Lama

  Mean, Animal, Thinking

• Morally speaking, we should be concerned for our whole environment.

  Dalai Lama

  Animal, Environment, Should

  Dalai Lama XIV (1995). “My Tibet”, p.53, Univ of California Press

• Basically, a human being is a social animal. So, if you create some short moment of happiness for people, you get deep satisfaction.

  Dalai Lama

  Animal, People, Satisfaction

• Many of the earth's habitats, animals, plants, insects and even micro-organisms that we know to be rare may not be known at all by future generations. We have the capability and the responsibility to act; we must do so before it is too late.

  Dalai Lama

  Nature, Responsibility, Animal

  The Dalai Lama (2009). “Worlds in Harmony”, p.42, ReadHowYouWant.com

• The problem isn't materialism as such. Rather it is the underlying assumption that full satisfaction can arise from gratifying the senses alone. Unlike animals whose quest for happiness is restricted to survival and to the immediate gratification of sensory desires, we human beings have the capacity to experience happiness at a deeper level which, when achieved, can overwhelm unhappy experiences.

  Dalai Lama

  Animal, Survival, Desire

• I think every human being, born from mother, and at least the next few years, you see, received immense affection from our mother. So the child's first experience in this lifetime at the beginning, I think that immense affection from other is in our blood. So therefore, the whole rest of life, other people show you smile, genuine sort of closeness feeling. You feel happy. Even animals also like that.

  Dalai Lama

  Mother, Children, Thinking

  Source: www.kpbs.org

• Sometimes people feel mind is merely the - in some animal, the energy or something from the brain. Now there are little sort of curiosities or I think doubt sometimes a sheer sort of mental attitude, some change in our brain. So these fields, now scientists are showing some interest.

  Dalai Lama

  Attitude, Animal, Thinking

  Source: www.kpbs.org

• Even an animal, if you show genuine affection, gradually trust develops... If you always showing bad face and beating, how can you develop friendship?

  Dalai Lama

  Animal, Faces, Affection

• Just give food without showing affection, [animals] might not get sort of 100% satisfaction. So they also, you see, when we human beings, we show affection, the poor animal also respond to us.

  Dalai Lama

  Animal, Giving, Might

  Source: www.kpbs.org

• To seek solitude like a wild animal. That is my only ambition.

  Dalai Lama

  Ambition, Animal, Solitude

• [Animals] appreciate others' affection, they also have the sort of ability to show their own affection. And then as soon as we're born, child, no religious faith.

  Dalai Lama

  Religious, Children, Animal

  Source: www.kpbs.org

• I am like a wounded animal in a remote isolated place - How wonderful! - How happy!

  Dalai Lama

  Animal, Wonderful, Wounded

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