There is no true joy in a life lived closed up in the little shell of the self. When you take one step to reach out to people, when you meet with others and share their thoughts and sufferings, infinite compassion and wisdom well up within your heart. Your life is transformed.

No matter what our personal circumstances may be, if we ourselves become a source of light, then there will be no darkness in the world.

There are some among the so-called elite who are overbearing and arrogant. I want to foster leaders, not elitists.

No one should be left to suffer alone.

Divorced from the cosmos, from nature, from society and from each other, we have become fractured and fragmented.

By changing our inner state of mind, we can change any suffering or hardship into a source of joy, regarding it as a means for forging and developing our lives. To turn even sorrow into a source of creativity - this is the way of life of a Buddhist

Having lived through the transition from totalitarianism, I am acutely mindful of the need to never take for granted the basic freedoms of thought, expression and belief that democracy brings.