Mere prayer or a wish will not affect inner spiritual change. The only way for development is by constant effort through meditation.

In the beginning practice is not easy. You may encounter difficulties or experience a loss of enthusiasm. Or perhaps there will be too much enthusiasm – then after a few weeks or months, your enthusiasm may wane. You need to develop a constant persistent approach based on a long-term commitment.

In the quest for mental quiescence, there is a state where striving must be abandoned, for an effortless concentration is necessary. Your mind then becomes very tranquil and achieves a state of wholeness. At that moment, to make an effort would disturb that pure tranquility. So in order to maintain that tranquility, effortless effort must be used.

Such practices as bodhicitta automatically bring calm at the time of death. The mind is then at a very critical period. If you are able to create a strong positive impact at that time, then this becomes a very powerful force in continuing that positive influence in the next life.

We practise various meditations in dream states. The virtue of such practices is that during such states, it is possible to separate the gross levels of consciousness from the gross physical state, and arrive at a subtler level of mind and body.

The teacher is responsible for his or her improper behaviour. It is the student's responsibility not to be drawn into it. The blame is on both: the student, because he is too obedient and devoted to the teacher; and the teacher, because he lacks the integrity necessary to be immune to that kind of vulnerability.

If there is love, there is hope that one may have real families, real brotherhood, real equanimity, real peace. If the love within your mind is lost and you see other beings as enemies, then no matter how much knowledge or education or material comfort you have, only suffering and confusion will ensue.

Human beings will continue to deceive and overpower one another. Basically, everyone exists in a state of suffering, so to abuse or mistreat each other is futile. The foundation of all spiritual practice is love. That you practise this well is my only request.

'To do our best means that at all times in our everyday life we should probe our minds so that we don't feel guilty about our mistakes, even though others don't know about them. If we do that, we are truly doing our best.

One can be deceived by three types of laziness: the laziness of indolence, which is the wish to procrastinate; the laziness of inferiority, which is doubting your capabilities; and the laziness that is attachment to negative actions, or putting great effort into non-virtue.

Listening cultivates wisdom and removes ignorance. It is like a torch that dispels ignorance. If you enrich your mental continuum by listening, no one can steal that wealth. It is the supreme wealth.

Every noble work is bound to encounter problems and obstacles. It is important to check your goal and motivation thoroughly. One should be very truthful, honest and reasonable. One's action should be good for others, and for oneself as well.

Emptiness should be understood in the context of dependent arising and it should evoke a sense of fullness, of things created by causes and conditions. We should not think that the self is something that was originally there and can be eliminated through meditation. In fact, the self is something that never existed in the first place.

To help others in vast and extensive ways we need to have attained one of the levels of Bodhisattva, that is, to have experienced the direct non-conceptual reality of voidness and to have achieved the power of extra-sensory perception.

Our state of mind plays a major role in our day-to-day experiences as well as in our physical and mental well-being. If a person has a calm and stable mind, this influences his or her attitude and behaviour in relation to others. In other words, if someone exists in a peaceful and tranquil state of mind, external surroundings can cause them only a limited disturbance.

It is under the greatest adversity that there exists the greatest potential for doing good, both for oneself and others.

Tenzin Gyatso, His Holiness the fourteenth Dalai Lama is the spiritual and temporal leader of the Tibetan people. He has written several books on Buddhism and philosophy, and has received many international awards, including the 1989 Nobel Prize as recognition for his advocacy of world peace and inter-religious understanding.

Renuka Singh is well-known in the field-of Buddhist studies. She has edited The Dalai Lama's Book of Daily Meditations and The Transformed Mind.