Akren Garkos

When you have a peaceful and tamed mind, life is more pleasant for your friends, spouse, parents, children, and acquaintances; your home is quiet, and all who live there enjoy an excellent sense of relaxation. Upon entering your house, others feel a sense of happiness.

In my experience, what we need is a calm mind and warm-heartedness provides a basis for that. That's how we make ourselves happy as individuals in families, local communities and nations. If we can train those who are young today in these qualities we’ll create a happier world.

Education today needs to include principles such as compassion and non-violence. What’s more, since we are missing something if we are physically fit, but full of anger and anxiety, we need to learn about emotional hygiene, tackling destructive emotions to find peace of mind.

The real destroyer of our peace of mind isn’t an external weapon or enemy, but our own destructive emotions. Neither our friends nor even the Buddha provide an opportunity to practice patience in the way that a hostile person does. And in so doing, an enemy can become our teacher

You are human beings, I'm a human being; you want a happy life, and I want a happy life. But I think that aim will not be fulfilled only on the basis of material values; what we all want is affection and what we all need is to be more warm-hearted.

A deep awareness of the goodness of human beings, that they are essentially kind, helpful, and gentle, can give us courage and hope. On a personal level too, such a vision of our basic nature can help promote a greater sense of well-being and connectedness with others.