My aim is to create a happy society with genuine friendship. Friendship between Tibetan and Chinese peoples is very essential.

If someone remains in a peaceful and tranquil state of mind, external surroundings can cause them only a limited disturbance.

Awareness of death is the very bedrock of the entire path. Until you have developed this awareness, all other practices are obstructed.

As a Buddhist, I view death as a normal process, a reality that I accept will occur as long as I remain in this earthly existence. Knowing that I cannot escape it, I see no point in worrying about it. I tend to think of death as being like changing your clothes when they are old and worn out, rather than as some final end. Yet death is unpredictable: We do not know when or how it will take place. So it is only sensible to take certain precautions before it actually happens.

The antidote to hatred in the heart, the source of violence, is tolerance.

Smile if you want a smile from another face.

In twenty years' time I'll be eighty-three, just an old man with a stick moving like a sloth bear. While I'm alive, I am fully committed to autonomy, and I am the person who can persuade the Tibetan people to accept it.