A Simple Religion

As part of the "compassion manual" I've been working on, I have gathered a bunch of "famous people quotations" from the Internetz. A lot from the Dalai Lama. I think of his happy, smiling face and know that one could do so much worse than be like him.

Here are the quotations, just to chew on a bit:

“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.” ~Dalai Lama

“Compassion is sometimes the fatal capacity for feeling what it is like to live inside somebody else's skin. It is the knowledge that there can never really be any peace and joy for me until there is peace and joy finally for you too.” Frederick Buechner

“Smile at each other, smile at your wife, smile at your husband, smile at your children, smile at each other — it doesn't matter who it is — and that will help you to grow up in greater love for each other.”
~Mother Teresa

“Suffering is but another name for the teaching of experience, which is the parent of instruction and the schoolmaster of life.” Horace

“A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. . . .Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.” Albert Einstein.

“My message is the practice of compassion, love and kindness. These things are very useful in our daily life, and also for the whole of human society these practices can be very important.” Dalai Lama

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.
Dalai Lama


George Washington Carver:
How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in life you will have been all of these.

Zelda Fitzgerald:
Nobody has ever measured, not even poets, how much a heart can hold.


“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.” Nelson Mandela