The Dalai Lama’s 18 Rules For Living

May 6, 2011 · 16 comments

in Inspiring,List

dalai lama

At the start of the new millennium the Dalai Lama apparently issued eighteen rules for living. Since word travels slowly in the digital age these have only just reached me. Here they are.

  1. Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
  2. When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.
  3. Follow the three Rs:
    1. Respect for self
    2. Respect for others
    3. Responsibility for all your actions.
  4. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.
  5. Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
  6. Don’t let a little dispute injure a great friendship.
  7. When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
  8. Spend some time alone every day.
  9. Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.
  10. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
  11. Live a good, honourable life. Then when you get older and think back, you’ll be able to enjoy it a second time.
  12. A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.
  13. In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don’t bring up the past.
  14. Share your knowledge. It’s a way to achieve immortality.
  15. Be gentle with the earth.
  16. Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.
  17. Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.
  18. Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.

via OwenKelly

Tagged as: dalai lama, Inspiring, List

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  • clompio

    Nice advice, but not by the Lama: http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/hoaxes/dalai.asp

  • Andriy

    These are all sh*t, which a 12 year-old could come up with.
    Stop being hypocritical, Dalai Liar!!!

  • http://www.ucuzhosting.info Bogac Erel

    Hey Ned, I don’t care if Dalai lama has spoken these words are not, because they are all great advices, I’ll translate them exactly and share in my blog if you don’t mind

  • EpistemologicalAnarchist

    Andriy watched penn & teller, and formed opinions.

  • Bart

    Bottom line is, the Dalai Lama doesn’t have kids and doesn’t have to commute to a job.
    Not too hard to be the bringer of light and good news when everyone around you treats you like your a golden child.
    Piss off, Dalai Lama. You’re full of crap.

  • Bokman

    Penn and Tellar are an angry and spiteful production when it comes to dogma. They wants to portray Christians as an angry and spiteful production just the same as they are. So that in the process, penn and teller try thier best to conjoin their same cesspool that they exsist in and try to infect the infinite reality that is Christ Jesus.

  • Bokman

    There is no disagreement in this ‘The Dalai Lama’s 18 Rules For Living’ they are indeed great basics for living.

  • Michael

    Bart eat your shorts.

    You clearly have the wrong attitude and probably live a miserable ahitty little life while getting up each morning wishing you weren’t doing what you do.

    Save your life crack open the shell and see a bit o the world and if you e done it before … Do it again.

  • Sina

    If these are all shit that a 12 year-old could come up with, then you must be more stupid than a 12 year-old for not respecting and being polite to others.
    And keep in mind that usually when we read a beautiful word we think we knew it before hand; but if we knew it then we could be the one who said it. Saying a beautiful and meaningful word needs a lot of wisdom. Reading these words is a great help, read more.

  • Naz

    Audriy and Bart, you know why you guys don’t like these basics rules for living? Or making comments that a 12 year could come up with? That’s because your lives are miserable.
    1. You guys are never being loved and you were never able to express your love to another = miserable = lonely
    2. You don’t learn from your mistake = because you are too arrogant and ignorant.
    3. You both find negativity in every living creature in the world = negativity equals ignorance.
    4. You spend time alone, but not appreciating your existence, but to complain about how the other person next to you drives a better car than you and why you are so unlucky = you don’t appreciate what you have
    If you claim that a kid can come up with these rules, you are not capable to at least even have a thinking of a 12 year old, otherwise as Dalai says in the 18 rules of living – “Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer”. If you’d disagreed with what he’d said, you should have kept your mouth shut.

    Above all if you think these 18 rules are no brainer, then you should have followed the three Rs
    1. Respect for Self = which you don’t have
    2. Respect for Others – clearly you don’t have that either
    3. Responsibility for all your actions – now this is still pending, which means, you should respond to this blog and apologize for what you’ve said as no one has anything against you..

  • Melvin

    You can follow the Dalai Lama’s rules or truths for living and at the end of your life, what do you have? Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the light and no man comes to the Father but through me.” He also said, “I go to prepare a place for you that where I am there you may be also.” Jesus is the Truth.

  • Mercio

    HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

  • dani

    it just makes me sad when i read words like this..

  • dani

    very true what you said,but you know what he will get from your message? that you have something against him,that is what he will think,of course you didn’t meant to send that message but that’s what he will understand because his mind is focused only on ignoring other peoples and thinking that he has to give a response that has to make you look bad,without thinking of what you just said,he doesn’t even think that what you said may be te real truth,he’s only thought is how to give you a smart answer,not necesarly true,but smart,a response that will make you look bad and make him look smart,in his ignorance he doesn’t care if you look bad or not,he doesn’t even thinks of that posiblillity.
    My only thought is that he will,one day,begin to realize that he is not,and will never be always right,he is not the best,the brightest of them all,i hope he will realize that there are brighter people than him ,that he is not perfect,nobody is,and the only way to grow,as a human being,is to open your eyes,and be grateful that there are people out there who can set you on the right path,he will understand,someday.

  • dani

    very true,but i don;t thik that what jessus said has to be taken literally,i think there’s more out there,our understanding is very limited,at least for now

  • sean

    These are simple sayings that are quite good. Sometimes thinking like a child is a good thing.