Compassion and generosity must be accompanied by detachment. Expecting something in return for them is like doing business. If the owner of a restaurant is all smiles with his customers, it is not because he loves them but because he wants to increase his turnover. When we love and help others, it should not be because we find a particular individual likable but because we see that all beings, whether we think of them as friends or enemies, want to be happy and have the right to happiness.
14th Dalai Lama
quoted in the book On the Path to Enlightenment: Heart Advice from the Great Tibetan Masters
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Further quotes from the book On the Path to Enlightenment:
- Our journey will have been useless
- Seeing the inner teacher
- Just as clouds
- You who have a precious human life
- Clarity and emptiness
- Whatever you do
- Free Perception
- Like gold hidden in its matrix
- Apply yourself unrelentingly to spiritual practice
- Right Time
- The alternation of thoughts
- Trample on anger with realization
- The only way to become buddha
- Only the fool wants more pain
- Cut the knot of greed
- The four boundless qualities
- The ultimate nature of mind
- See the difference
- The enemies dwelling in your mind
- To end suffering