In an age of distraction, nothing can feel more luxurious than paying attention.

Like the moon on the water, in a way. When you confront a Zen master, what you're really seeing are not his limitations but yours.

I'm one of those perverse people who likes being alone. I always took myself to be a community of one. That's what I am comfortable with.

For more and more of us, home has less to do with a piece of soil than a piece of soul.

Often when we think of exile we think of destruction or loss. But the Dalai Lama always says exile is reality, it's something we can make use of, and he has used it to get rid of everything that he thought was stifling and old, and to create a new, improved and much healthier Tibet.

We travel, initially, to lose ourselves; and we travel, next to find ourselves.

When one questions [Dalai Lama's] political actions, it is worth remembering that he's the single most experienced politician on the planet at this moment.