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About this quote

What does it mean?
True peace depends on respecting rights and meeting needs, but also on achieving inner mental peace.
In plain terms
Outer peace needs rights and food while inner peace comes from the mind.
What can you take from it?
Cultivate both societal fairness and inner mental calm.

Where it applies

  • mental health care
  • human rights advocacy
  • community building

Putting it to work

  • advocate for basic needs
  • practice meditation
  • support civil liberties

Questions to consider

  • How does your inner state affect your view of the world?
  • What conditions are needed for true peace?

Another view

Inner peace does not always translate to political change.

More from Tenzin Gyatso

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  2. Inner peace is the key: if you have inner peace, the external problems do not affect your deep sense of peace and tranquility. In that state of mind you can de…

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  3. Today, we are truly a global family. What happens in one part of the world may affect us all. This, of course, is not only true of the negative things that hap…

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