I always say that people should not rush to change religions. There is real value in finding the spiritual resources you need in your home religion.
Interpretation
Rushing to change religions can overlook the spiritual resources available within one's own faith.
The Dalai Lama emphasizes the importance of exploring and appreciating the spiritual aspects of one's current religion before seeking change. It suggests that there can be profound value and resources within one's original faith that can fulfill spiritual needs, rather than hastily seeking fulfillment elsewhere.
In practice
During a seminar on spirituality, to emphasize the importance of self-exploration within one's own faith.
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.
Material objects give rise to physical happiness, while spiritual development gives rise to mental happiness. Since we experience both physical and mental happiness, we need both material and spiritual development. This is why, for our own good and that of society we need to balance material progress with inner development.
All major religious traditions carry basically the same message, that is love, compassion and forgiveness the important thing is they should be part of our daily lives.
The ultimate source of a happy life is warm-heartedness. This means extending to others the kind of concern we have for ourselves. On a simple level we find that if we have a compassionate heart we naturally have more friends. And scientists today are discovering that while anger and hatred eat into our immune system, warm-heartedness and compassion are good for our health.
My religion is kindness. _x000D_ A good mind, a good heart, _x000D_ warm feelings these are _x000D_ the most important things.
If a person's basic state of mind is serene and calm, then it is possible for this inner peace to overwhelm a painful physical experience. On the other hand, if someone is suffering from depression, anxiety, or any form of emotional distress, then even if he or she happens to be enjoying physical comforts, he will not really be able to experience the happiness that these could bring.
I have always given it as my decided opinion that no nation had a right to intermeddle in the internal concerns of another; that every one had a right to form and adopt whatever government they liked best to live under themselves.
And when suddenly the god stopped her and, with anguish in his cry, uttered the words: βHe has turned roundβ β she comprehended nothing and said softly: βWho?
Renunciation is the background of all religious thought wherever it be, and you will always find that as this idea of renunciation lessens, the more will the senses creep into the field of religion, and spirituality will decrease in the same ratio.
When something is universal enough in our everyday lives, we take it for granted to the point of forgetting it exists.
Rest in natural great peace, this exhausted mind, beaten helpless by karma and neurotic thought, like the relentless fury of the pounding waves in the infinite ocean of samsara.
The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.
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