One of the world’s foremost spiritual leaders, His Holiness the Dalai Lama has traveled the globe to spread his undying message of compassion, love, peace, and kindness for close to a half-century.

The Dalai Lama: His Essential Wisdom is a collection of hundreds of inspiring quotations from His Holiness. The selections are drawn largely from his writings, teachings, interviews, speeches, and other statements made during the course of his more than forty-eight years as the exiled spiritual leader of the Tibetan people.

In these excerpts, the Dalai Lama reflects with wisdom that is both profound and down to earth upon the need for compassion and kindness, the search for happiness, the way to peace, the meaning of pain and suffering, the role of religion, the power of meditation, and the challenges of life in the modern world. In other selections, His Holiness recalls his singular childhood and the turmoil surrounding the Communist takeover of Tibet.

Brimming with warmth, humor, and practical advice, the selections gathered here powerfully illuminate why His Holiness the Dalai Lama is beloved the world over for his timeless wisdom for all humanity.

“I have found that the greatest degree of inner tranquility comes from the development of love and compassion. The more we care for the happiness of others, the greater is our own sense of well-being. Cultivating a close, warmhearted feeling for others automatically puts the mind at ease. It is the ultimate source of success in life.”

“Anger and hatred are our real enemies. They are the forces we most need to confront and defeat, not the temporary ‘enemies’ who appear intermittently throughout our life. And unless we train our minds to reduce their negative force, they will continue to disturb us and disrupt our attempts to develop a calm mind.”

“Everybody loves to talk about calm and peace whether in a family, national, or international context, but without inner peace how can we make real peace? World peace through hatred and force is impossible.”

“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.”

—His Holiness the Dalai Lama