The essence of compassion is a desire to alleviate the suffering of others and to promote their well-being

I believe that the very purpose of our life is to seek happiness. That is clear. Whether one believes in religion or not, whether one believes in this religion or that religion, we all are seeking something better in life. So, I think, the very motion of our life is towards happiness.

Material development alone does not yield genuine inner peace.

Whether you believe in God or not does not matter so much, whether you believe in Buddha or not does not matter so much; as a Buddhist, whether you believe in reincarnation or not does not matter so much. You must lead a good life. And a good life does not mean just good food, good clothes, good shelter. These are not sufficient. A good motivation is what is needed: compassion, without dogmatism, without complicated philosophy; just understanding that others are human brothers and sisters and respecting their rights and human dignity.

I have come to the conclusion that whether or not a person is a religious believer does not matter. Far more important is that they be a good human being.

Along with selfishness, anger is one of the most serious problems facing the world today

I think the problem is these basic sort of human values from our - from the beginning, from birth, are not sort of properly nurtured. So then our mind, our brain, through education and also difference of experiences, that eventually, these basic values or what are called dominant, not have the catching up our intelligence, experience growth, that also should grow. Then our life become more human.