When interviewing the Dalai Lama, author Victor Chan asked, "You have been a Buddhist monk for all your life. Let's not talk about difficult things like Nirvana or enlightenment. But what do you want to achieve?" To which the Dalai Lama responded, "To be happy. My practice helps me lead a useful life. If I can give some short moment of happiness to others, then I feel that my life has achieved some purpose. This gives me deep mental satisfaction — this feeling always comes if you serve others. So when I help others, I feel happy. For me, the most important thing is human compassion, a sense of caring for one another."
— His Holiness The Dalai Lama, The Big Questions by Lama Surya Das