We need material development, but we need to understand that by itself it doesn't bring peace of mind.

I want to say, without hesitation, the purpose of our life is happiness.

Human satisfaction must ultimately come from within oneself.

Forming a new world religion is difficult and not particularly desirable. However, in that love is essential to all religions, one could speak of the universal religion of love.

Instead of harboring fear and suspicion we need to think of other people not as ‘them’ but ‘us’.

For a practitioner of love and compassion, an enemy is one of the most important teachers. Without an enemy you cannot practice tolerance, and without tolerance you cannot build a sound basis of compassion.

Those who like myself, consider themselves to be followers of Buddha, should practice as much as we can. To followers of other religious traditions, I would like to say, 'Please practice your own religion seriously and sincerely.' And to non-believers, I request you to try to be warm-hearted. I ask this of you because these mental attitudes actually bring us happiness.