If through practice of insight you develop a sense of ease, then time has no relevance. If you're miserable, time does matter. It's so unbearable, so enormous you want to get out of it as soon as possible.

Anger, jealousy, impatience, and hatred are the real troublemakers, with them problems cannot be solved.

I'm sure all of us agree that we need to overcome violence, but we first need to examine whether it has any value. From a strictly practical perspective, on certain occasions violence appears to be useful. We can solve a problem quickly by force. But this success is often at the expense of the rights and welfare of others. Although one problem has been solved, the seed of another has been planted.

After I handed over all my authority, I feel now our struggle [for Tibet ] become much, much safer. And me personally, the day I officially handed over, that night, very unusual sound. I am quite free now.

The real test of compassion is not what we say in abstract discussions but how we conduct ourselves in daily life.

We have never declared war on China. We have only asked them to leave us in peace, to let us have our natural freedom.

I call the light and high aspects of my being spirit and the dark and heavy aspects soul.