A genuine smile touches something fundamental in us: our natural appreciation of kindness.

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.

However capable and skillful an individual may be, left alone, he or she will not survive. When we are sick or very young or very old, we must depend on the support of others. There is no significant division between us and other people, because our basic natures are the same. If we wish to ensure everyone's peace and happiness, we need to cultivate a healthy respect for the diversity of our peoples and cultures, founded on an understanding of this fundamental sameness of all human beings.

My overriding belief is that it is always possible for criminals to improve and that by its very finality the death penalty contradicts this.

Logically, harmony must come from the heart... Harmony very much based on trust. As soon as use force, creates fear. Fear and trust cannot go together.

I could justify violence only in this extreme case, to save the last living knowledge of Buddhism itself.

Buddha was speaking about reality. Reality may be one, in its deepest essence, but Buddha also stated that all propositions about reality are only contingent.