Don't use Buddhism to become a Buddhist. Use Buddhism to become better at whatever else in your life you are doing already.

If we try to secure the well-being of others, we will, at the same time, create the conditions for our own.

Compassion, along with love, is the face of altruism.

Each of us in our own way can try to spread compassion into people's hearts. Western civilizations these days place great importance on filling the human brain with knowledge, but no one seems to care about filling the human heart with compassion. This is what the real role of religion is.

All religions try to benefit people, with the same basic message of the need for love and compassion, for justice and honesty, for contentment. So merely changing formal religious affiliations will often not help much. On the other hand, in pluralistic, democratic societies, there is the freedom to adopt the religion of your choice. This is good. This lets curious people like you run around on the loose!

Looking at the pattern of our existence from birth to death, we can see the way in which we are fundamentally nurtured by other's affection.

It is felt that a disciplined mind leads to happiness and an undisciplined mind leads to suffering, and in fact it is said that bringing about discipline within one's mind is the essence of the Buddha's teaching.