Quote Of The Day By 14th Dalai Lama: 'I Try To Treat Whoever I Meet As An...'

Long before the world knew his name, the Dalai Lama had a knack for recognizing strangers. When he was 2, Tibetan Buddhist authorities visited his house to try to identify him as the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama. The team had a leader, and he played the part of a household servant so he could watch the boy without giving anything away. But the toddler, young though he was, saw through it, and he greeted the visitor with "Sera lama," naming the monastery the man came from.

At least, that's how the official biography of Tenzin Gyatso, otherwise known as the 14th Dalai Lama, tells it. He has spent much of his life since those early days among people he'd never met before. When Chinese troops suppressed the 1959 uprising, the event sent the Dalai Lama fleeing from Lhasa at 23, disguised in a soldier's uniform. He hasn't set foot in Tibet since, building a new home in exile in Dharamsala, India. His travels have taken him to 67-plus countries, and his honors range from the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize to the Grammy he won at 90. His philosophy teaches a practical approach to Buddhism, too, with science playing a major part.

The 14th Dalai Lama has discussed how suffering is unavoidable in life, and how love built on attachment keeps us dissatisfied. Most importantly, his teachings present compassion as something you can reason your way to. The toddler who greeted a disguised visitor as someone he already knew grew into a man who tries to greet everyone that way, which is why the Dalai Lama is the sage voice behind today's quote of the day.

The Dalai Lama once wrote, "I try to treat whoever I meet as an old friend. This gives me a genuine feeling of happiness. It is the practice of compassion."

The lines are from "Compassion and the Individual," a short essay he first published as a booklet in 1991. The essay asks the big question of what life is really for and settles on happiness and compassion, derived from caring about others and treating them as you'd treat an old friend. Everyone needs love and compassion in this life, so even the stranger you meet on the street deserves to be treated with warmth and care.

There's a distinguishing quality to the word "old" that might be overlooked in that sentence. The Dalai Lama doesn't say he treats people as friends, but as old friends. A new friend is someone you're still watching closely, deciding whether they're worthy of your time or trust. An old friend has already passed that test. You forgive the small things — being grumpy, being irritable, sometimes even being irrational — and you treat them with patience. The Dalai Lama says that should be our template for meeting new people and strangers.

While the maxim is altruistic by nature, the Dalai Lama actually brings up a second point. The person who gains the most from this attitude is the one doing it. Treating every newcomer as a possible problem is draining, because it keeps you on guard. Dropping that guard is a relief, and that's probably why, in the same essay, he jokes: "If you really want to be selfish, you should be very altruistic!" What goes around comes around, and the math is simple: The more people you treat as friends, the more friendships you end up with.

This is one of those lines that appear to be the point but actually contain enormous wisdom. Even the inclusion of "practice" is a conscious choice, because it implies the job isn't always as easy as it sounds. The Dalai Lama "tries" to treat strangers like that, because it isn't native. To try ourselves, we should start small. Maybe the next time we meet someone new, a coworker on their first day or the cashier at the coffee shop, we should greet them with a genuine smile and the simple gift of conversation.

• "Peace, in the sense of the absence of war, is of little value to someone who is dying of hunger or cold."
• "In today's materialistic society, if you have money and power, you seem to have many friends. But they are not friends of yours; they are the friends of your money and power."
• "Every morning when I wake up, I dedicate myself to helping others to find peace of mind. Then, when I meet people, I think of them as long term friends; I don't regard others as strangers."
• "Sometimes people in search of calm take tranquilizers. I've never taken them. I work to cultivate peace of mind and see that I get nine hours of sleep. In my experience, cultivating compassion ensures I sleep soundly, have a good appetite, and a good digestion."
• "If scientific analysis were conclusive to demonstrate certain claims in Buddhism to be false, then we must accept the findings of science and abandon those claims.