We need to employ a secular approach to ethics, secular in the Indian sense of respecting all religious traditions and even the views of non-believers in an unbiased way. Secular ethics rooted in scientific findings, common experience and common sense can easily be introduced into the secular education system. If we can do that there is a real prospect of making this 21st century an era of peace and compassion.

Today we understand that the future of humanity very much depends on our planet, and that the future of the planet very much depends on humanity.

Every religion emphasizes human improvement, love, respect for others, sharing other people's suffering. On these lines every religion had more or less the same viewpoint and the same goal.

I always tell people that religious institutions and political institutions should be separate. So while I'm telling people this, I myself continue with them combined. Hypocrisy!

Meditation may also be thought of as a technique by which we diminish the force of old thought habits and develop new ones.

I am increasingly convinced that the time has come to find a way of thinking about spirituality and ethics beyond religion altogether.

According to Buddhist psychology most of our troubles stem from attachment to things that we mistakenly see as permanent.