Upper Story (2020) - full transcript

SUBTITLING: Zuzu Flavius

An investigation into the mental health
status of South Africans

has revealed that one third
of all South Africans

have mental illnesses.

Australia is hiding a shocking secret

and it’s one
we really need to talk about.

Every week five kids, five,

commit suicide.

In the past thirty years the opening up
of China has been very rapid

and people feel depression.

It is unprecedented.



WHO has declared India to be
the most depressed country in the world

with 36% of Indians
admitting to battling depression.

27% of citizens in the European Union,
more than one in four,

suffer from mental health problems.

Too many Americans who struggle
with mental health illnesses

are still suffering in silence
rather than seeking help.

In the state of Virginia,
in the city of Charlottesville,

since 1987 the Mind & Life Institute

has been conducting
rigorous scientific research

to discover
the secrets of mental well-being.

The Institute works with some
of the best universities in the world,

such as MIT, Emory University,
Brown University,

University of Zurich
and Kyoto University.

The Mind & Life is a global community



and the work that we do is with

and because of the people
who make up our broader global community.

And so for all of our programs,

we engage our colleagues
from different parts of the world

to help us in being sure

that what we are doing
is culturally sensitive

and is in fact
going to be able to have

impact into their local communities.

The research has been informed
by the very first

conversation

of the Dalai Lama
with Western scientists,

which was the foundation
of the Mind & Life Institute

almost 34 years ago.

I started my...

My world and my work
was in health care.

I started my work as a nurse

and that was caring for people
with very serious illness,

primarily people with cancer

and facing the end of life,

as well as those people
who have mental illness.

2007 was my first
personal experience with Mind & Life

as I attended
the Summer Research Institute,

and I was just a regular attendee.

Being with neuroscientists
and biological scientists

and social scientists, anthropologists
and Buddhist study scholars

and philosophers,

was very refreshing.

Because there wasn’t
another place we could do that.

(plane engine running)

All the people you see are
members of the Mind & Life Institute.

They came here
from all over the world.

We went to welcome them at the airport.

And soon, you will discover why
they travelled to such a remote place...

...where McLeod Ganj is.

We’re going to be all the way up.

This is lower Dharamsala here.

- Dharamsala?
- Yes, so Dharamsala...

McLeod Ganj
is primarily Tibetan and Sikh

and then there’s a large refugee
population in the south of India.

In the south?

McLeod Ganj is a small village

located on the first slopes
of the Himalaya,

in the state of Himachal Pradesh

and home
to the Tibetan Government in Exile

as of the 1960s.

Most importantly, McLeod Ganj is

the official residence of His Holiness
the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet.

India gave His Holiness a ready welcome

and other freedom-loving nations
extended sympathy and support.

Many thousands of Tibetans

crossed the Himalayan barrier
to the security offered by India.

In the 1950s a large part
of the Tibetan population

left its homes and moved to India.

A few years later,
the social movements of the 60s and 70s

pushed a growing number of Westerners
to explore Asia, especially India,

giving them the chance to meet
the Tibetan masters and scholars.

Impressed by their knowledge,
many of the Westerners went on

to establish solid relations with them,

which still prosper today
in many cities around the world.

A new chapter in human history
was about to be written.

Since my childhood,

I have...

the interest about science.

Even Buddha’s own words,

we have the right to investigate.

If we find contradiction,

even Buddha’s own words,

then we have the right to reject.

So,

I developed a keen interest
about modern science.

I think...

in the 70s, 60s... 70s,

I developed a desire

to discuss with modern scientists.

So then when I asked

some of my friends,

some Westerners:

“I want a serious discussion
with modern scientists.”

Then some of them responded to me:

“Be careful!"

"Science is a killer

of religious faith.”

Then I immediately reflected

on Buddha’s own words of advice to us.

He mentioned: “All my followers,

"monks, scholars,

"should not accept
my teaching out of faith,

"out of devotion,

"but rather thorough investigation.”

So then I start

meeting with scientists.

Mainly four fields:

cosmology,

neurobiology,

physics,

including quantum physics

and then psychology.

We learned many useful information.

In the Asian Indian tradition,

there’s a lot of knowledge
about mind, about emotions,

how to tackle these emotions.

That is relevant to humanity.

So then,

a number of scientists,

they really found useful information

from our tradition,

that is Indian tradition.

To better understand this story,
we have to take a step back

to 1987.

On one of my trips to Asia in 1974,

I happened to be invited
to a Tibetan monastery

that was set up for Westerners,

called Kopan, in Kathmandu.

Since I’d always been interested
in the meaning of life

and what we’re really doing here,

I found the teachings offering
a pretty complete explanation.

Not that I believe the explanation,

but from a logical basis
I thought it was very complete.

To sit down with someone from the East

like His Holiness who had
a great scholarly background

and actually discuss

some topics of interest
in their research...

And I knew that His Holiness
from his side was very interested

in speaking with Western scientists.

So it was really to create an atmosphere
of deepening of understanding.

And I have a lab where I do
some experiments relating to perception,

I do some work
in artificial intelligence.

Just like many people:
because at some point,

I realized that my life was a total mess

and I didn’t know
what the hell was going on.

Finally I run in 1974

totally by, one would say, accident
in Boulder, Colorado

into a Tibetan teacher
called Trungpa Rinpoche,

who was then beginning
to teach in the West.

He made so much sense
in terms of how to work with oneself

that I started to practice.

About 3 or 4 years down my practice,
I began to realize that

behind the whole tradition of Buddhist
meditation, there is also such a rich...

epistemology and theory of mind,
if you want to say it that way.

There is a natural attitude
that both scientists and Buddhists have.

Both of them have
a strong interest in examining

if I may say so,
the phenomena in front of them.

That is they like to go
into details of things.

And second of all,
both of them like to examine,

particularly
with reference to experience

rather than relying on dogma
or purely on texts.

Buddhism is more natural a partner
for a conversation to Science

than any other spiritual tradition
on this planet, I would submit.

In Buddhist psychology,
there's a lot of explanations.

About the physical level, modern science

has much knowledge,
or information.

So in the past, the scientists

simply considered the brain.

Besides the brain, nothing there.

So even scientists, some scientists,
reject the existence of the mind.

Varela,

a very nice person,

he also has genuine interest
about Buddhism.

He himself you see,
his own personal experience,

made something,
a very close connection

with scientific research work

and similarly

combined with some Buddhist...

knowledge about mind,
about emotion, these things.

He really helped
to develop this Institution.

Then later Richard Davidson.

He’s a specialist about the brain.

Very, very useful. Very, very useful.

His knowledge is so wonderful

and his personal...

nature, also wonderful.

Wonderful.

Since, we’ve become
very trusted close friends.

This incredible journey has brought us
to the University of Wisconsin-Madison

to visit Dr. Richard Davidson,

founder and chair
of the Center for Healthy Minds.

The center conducts unique
and groundbreaking research

on the untapped potential
of the human mind.

In my early years in graduate school,
I had the great fortune of

encountering people whose demeanor,

whose personal presence
was really positive.

They were kind,
warm-hearted people

who I really wanted to be around more.

And I wanted to discover
what their secret sauce was.

I discovered that they all had
an interest in the practice of meditation

and that’s really
what initiated my quest.

After my second year of graduate school
at Harvard in the mid-1970s,

I went off to Asia for the first time
to India and to Sri Lanka

to get a little personal taste
of these practices.

I came back with a conviction
that this was something really important

for psychology and for neuroscience.

I knew that in some way,

my life had really been
irrevocably touched at that time.

In 1992 I was actually invited
by His Holiness the Dalai Lama

to come to Dharamsala to meet with him
and to begin a serious dialogue

about the possibility of using
modern neuroscientific methods

to investigate
the minds and the brains

of Tibetan practitioners
who spent years training their mind.

And it was a seminal experience for me.

He challenged me on that day,

he said: “You’ve been using
tools of modern neuroscience

"to study anxiety, fear,

"and stress, and adversity,

"why can’t you use those same tools
to study kindness and compassion?”

It was a wake-up call

and I made a commitment to him
on that day in 1992

that we were going to reorient
our work more toward...

the positive end of the human spectrum

and to begin to investigate
more seriously

the impact of contemplative practices.

I first met Matthieu Ricard
at a Mind & Life meeting

in Dharamsala, India, in 2000.

So we’ve known each other now
for almost two decades.

It was very clear to me
when we first met

that he was going to be playing
a very important role in this quite...

unusual and never-before-attempted
cross-cultural dialogue.

So, you know,
some people were surprised

I left a scientific career
to go study with Tibetan Masters.

But what is science about?

Science is about
discovering reality as it is.

Not just following appearances
but seeing how things work.

Discovering new things.

So the field of science is usually
physical phenomena, biology, life,

now a little bit more psychology

which is a bit more
going into other insights.

But Buddhism is a science of mind.

For the last 2500 years we have said
it’s a precursor of psychology.

Not only knowing how the mind works

but knowing
the laws of happiness and suffering,

the mechanisms of happiness
and suffering.

When I travelled to India
to meet those teachers,

I was doing my PhD
so I went back and forth every summer.

And after six years, I figured out that

this is really the way of life
I wanted to explore further.

Basically for twenty-five years,
I was completely out of Western life.

Life in a monastery is intense and based
on a rigorous academic schedule.

The day begins at 4:30 am

and ends around 1 am,
sometimes later.

(monks debating)

Monasteries teach
the Five Major sciences,

also known as superior sciences.

They are similar to what we know
as neurobiology, psychology

and quantum physics.

They will also teach minor sciences
such as art, sculpture and poetry.

Tibetan monks and nuns
will first memorize the content

to analyse the texts logically
and fully understand their meaning.

Masters will help students to comprehend
the deeper meaning of the Teachings

through texts and debate sessions.

As classes progress, exams become
more frequent and more difficult.

For every 100 students who enroll,

only 30 to 40 of them will
eventually complete their studies

and take on the task of teaching.

This will take them about 20 years.

Then there was the Mind & Life
which I joined in 2000,

it was on Destructive Emotions

and there was Francisco Varela,
Richard Davidson, Paul Eckman,

and many other luminaries.

And halfway through the week,
the Dalai Lama said:

“It’s all fine but what can we
contribute to society?”

And the idea came:

let’s take the best neuroscientists
and specialists of emotions

and let’s get long-term meditators

who have done
10 to 50 000 hours of meditation

to study the effect of mind training
on the brain.

So then I volunteered,
being an ex-scientist.

I also recruited,

convinced many of my friends,
meditators, Bhutanese, Tibetans,

Westerners, monks and lay people

who had done
a lot of meditation practice.

I went to Francisco Varela’s lab
but he died very soon after.

I went to Paul Eckman’s lab a few times

in Berkeley, San Francisco and UCSF.

But the main collaboration
turned out to be with Richard Davidson.

In 2006, Time Magazine
announced Dr. Richard Davidson

as one of the 100 most influential
people in the world

for the experiments he carried out
with the expert Tibetan meditators,

which led to unprecedented
discoveries of the human mind.

When we talk about the effects
of meditation on the body,

or for that matter,
the effects of meditation on anything,

we need to first indicate

what kind of meditation
we’re talking about.

There are literally hundreds
of different kinds of meditation.

We have a very broad

and deep program of research

on many different aspects of meditation.

And we study people
at the beginning stages of practice,

we study longer term practitioners.

And we also make
a very important distinction

between the changes that might occur
when you are meditating,

when you’ve got your butt
on a cushion or on a chair

and you’re actually meditating,

compared to the changes that occur after
or that are more enduring.

Because we’re interested
in how meditation can impact

every nook and cranny
of your everyday life,

every aspect of your everyday life.

And the way we study that

is to look at the more enduring changes,
what we call “trait” changes.

It would require that we specify
what kind of meditation it is,

how long a person has been meditating

and whether we’re talking
about “state” or “trait” changes.

In Tibetan Buddhism,
in order to increase our inner skills,

we’re required to practice
using two main tools:

the first is
meditation for concentration,

also known as shiné practice.

The second is analytical meditation,
also known as Vipassana practice.

To practice meditation for concentration,

what today might be known
as Mindfullness,

we begin by concentrating on our breath.

It is easiest
to concentrate on our breath

because our mind naturally moves.

But to focus properly,

we must train ourselves
to visualize a fixed object.

This practice is what supports
the ability of analysis.

Analytical meditation is
what enables us to realize

interdependence and compassion,

which are the fundamentals of well-being.

Interdependence means
that nothing exists on its own

or independently.

One of Buddha's first teachings

and a recent discovery
in Quantum Physics.

Therefore analytical meditation
is the most important form of meditation.

The combination of these two practices,
concentration and analysis,

is what allows us to achieve
the skill of well-being.

One of the things

that viewers will recognize
if they try this,

if they try to pay attention
to their breathing for example,

is that their mind will wander,
thoughts will occur,

distractions happen,

this is the nature of our mind.

And so being able
to recognize when that happens

and gently bring the mind back
to the object of the practice

is the monitoring function.

With simple mindfulness practices,
one of the components of our minds

that are impacted quite clearly
is attention,

and there are different aspects
of attention that may be impacted.

Mindfulness is a word
which is bandied about a lot

in the media these days.

Of course it also has historical roots

in the Buddhist tradition.

It has been co-opted,
I would say, by psychologists

in the modern era and further...

described and distorted, I think,

by popular media.

We and other scientists have found
that if we’re talking about

simple mindfulness practices,
that there are certain...

aspects of our biology that are relevant
to health which are impacted,

including improvements
in certain aspects of immune function,

decreases in stress hormones

and changes
in the autonomic nervous system,

which is part of the system

that responds
in a fight or flight situation,

where there is stress
or fear that is activated.

The autonomic nervous system
regulates those bodily functions

we do not consciously activate,

such as our heart rate,
our respiration or digestion.

On a biological level,
we are still primitive:

when we are afraid or if we feel at risk,

our body believes our negative emotions
are caused by an external danger.

Once our emotions are triggered,
the amygdala alerts the hypothalamus,

which will then produce stress hormones
that pause our functions

while increasing the level of sugar
and fat in our blood

and generating
the energy to run away.

The problem is that living
under stress all the time

also increases the chances
of physical diseases.

Meditation has been shown to be capable
of reducing the amygdala’s activity,

enabling a greater control of fear

and a reduction
in the brain’s response to it.

And we can see improvements
after just a few weeks of training.

The Mind & Life Summer Research
Institute (SRI) is now in its 16th year.

It is a week-long immersive
residential program

held annually
at Garrison Institute in New York.

So we’re in for a real treat.

Tania’s been working
on a really significant study

for a number of years
and it has just come to fruition.

I hope you’re here to share some of that.
So welcome, Tania Singer.

So the first time
I encountered Mind & Life,

actually it was
when I was in Dharamsala

and the Mind & Life conference
had just ended.

It was on plasticity and I was
so amazed to hear from a monk

that neuroscientists had just met
with the Dalai Lama and monks

to discuss neuroplasticity,
because that was my field.

I wrote to Richie Davidson,
who was on the Board of Mind & Life,

and I said: “I want to suggest
a conference on compassion,

neuroscience and empathy”,

because I was just doing research
in London and it was very fresh.

And it was the first time
we investigated empathy in the brain.

Immediately he wrote me back.
He said: “I’m in London, can I meet you?”

So we met
and we became friends immediately.

And so since then, I was basically also
working with Matthieu Ricard for years.

We were putting him in the scanner,

asking him to go in different states
of empathy, compassion,

loving-kindness and so on
and we studied his brain

while he was producing
these meditative states,

and we learned from that.

In the work we were doing
with Richie Davidson and Tania Singer

at the Max Planck Institute of Leipzig,

we could, through interacting,
make a clear difference

between empathy and compassion.

Through the dialogue,
something new comes out.

For example, with Matthieu Ricard
I was doing empathy research

in putting people into pain,
giving pain in the scanner

and then measuring the brain networks
which light up

when you have pain or when you empathize
with the pain of others,

when you share the pain.

I thought at that time, empathy
and compassion was the same thing:

a response whenever you see
someone suffering.

And he went into the scanner and I said:

"Can you please just do
compassion meditation?"

and I saw in his brain

networks lighting up
were actually networks

which come
with positive feeling, reward,

you know, feeling of love and warmth.

So I was looking at this
and I was like: "How?"

"What is he doing?
He’s not suffering with the other."

So I asked him, I said: “Matthieu,

"you know I asked you
to empathize with the other

"so you should imagine someone suffering
and really suffer with this person.”

And he said:
“No, you asked me to go in compassion.”

And I said:
“Yeah but same same, no?”

And he said: “No, not at all!”

Then he came out of the scanner
and we talked.

If you put someone in an MRI
and see what happens in the brain,

unless you can have a very detailed,

insightful description
of what this person has been doing,

thinking, feeling,

what type of mind training or meditation
that person is doing, he or she is doing,

then you have no clue
what's going on in the experience.

So in a way,

that collaboration is very fruitful.

Now it’s increasingly appreciated
and recognized by the scientist,

it’s a true collaboration.

It’s not just
meditators going in the fMRI,

being put electrodes
and being like guinea pigs.

They are completely part of the process

of establishing a research protocol,

interpreting the results and the data.

So they are true collaborators.

He said compassion is a state

where you don’t necessarily have
to suffer with the other

but you develop
this feeling of concern, warmth

and a strong motivation
to help the other.

So I said: “Oh really?"

"This is amazing. This is why
we see these networks light up,

"the ones you would see in the brain
if a mother sees a picture of a child.

"This kind of warm, loving feeling.”

And so I asked him to go back
in the scanner and said:

“OK now Matthieu, you only do empathy,

"you suffer with the other,
you don’t go in compassion,

"you don’t transform it in compassion,

"you don’t do
what you usually do in meditation.

"You just resonate with the suffering
and be empathic.”

And he said: “Ok, why should I do it?”
I said: “For science! You know?”

Can you do just empathy?
Suffering with the suffering, and I tried

and within half an hour
I was completely burnt out.

Then I shift back to compassion

and everything disappeared,
the burnout completely disappeared.

Compassion is
a strong feeling of concern

towards people who are suffering
and a desire to help them.

A person who feels compassion
is not distressed

or overwhelmed
by the negative emotions of others.

We can all train ourselves
to feel compassion

through analytical meditation.

Many people say that we need
to grow more, become more empathic.

But what happens

if you are a caregiver
and you effectively resonate

with people who suffer, all the time,

then you burn out,
you get emotional distress.

So,

then we realized that in the brain,

meditators who engage in compassion
do something very different.

It’s a very wholesome feeling,
very warm-hearted feeling.

There’s no distress at all.

And we found
that the loving kindness meditation

actually is an antidote
to empathic distress.

We can now offer compassion training

for doctors, caregivers, social workers,

who burn out and don’t know why.

And then we really understood
that basically just empathy alone,

if you don’t transform it
into compassion,

can burn you out and can bring you
into empathic distress,

which probably happens a lot
with nurses or every caregiver,

or, you know, people who need to be
in wars or in areas of crisis.

Scientific research

is very, very essential

for the future of the world.

So far,

the scientific research
and scientific fields

are mainly external things.

Even those specialists about the brain,

their knowledge
about system of emotions,

system of the mind, is very limited.

So the modern science now

should expand.

Not only external things,

but also internal, our mind,
our emotions, these things.

In Buddhism there is
the notion of transformation,

the possibility of transforming our mind.

Neuroplasticity is a word
that we use to refer to the fact

that the brain changes

in response to experience
and in response to training.

Most of the time our brain
is being shaped by forces around us

about which we have
little access and little control.

We can actually cultivate
healthy habits of mind

which will change
brain function and structure

in ways that will support
those qualities.

The scientific findings show

more anger, constant anger, fear

are very bad for our health.

And obviously we can see

at the level of family,

with more anger,
more jealousy, more distress,

that family will never be a happy family.

So in order to develop
a healthy body and a long life,

people exercise
and do yoga exercise like that.

They extensively carry out
some physical exercise

but are full of worry here.

So emotion is a key factor

for a healthy body,

a long life.

Our work collectively has led us
to a very, very simple

but we think radical, conclusion.

And that is
that well-being is a skill.

We normally don’t think
of well-being as a skill

but what we would argue
is that well-being

is no different fundamentally

than learning how to play a violin

or learning to play sports.

If you practice at it,
you will get better.

(funky music)

The Master is a fundamental figure,
a person of experience.

An important aspect of Buddhism
states that the teachings of Buddha

have been created to adjust to
the learning abilities of the listener.

One student might understand a concept
through a different type of explanation

compared to another student.

The greatness of a Master lies
in the ability to understand

which teaching will be
the most beneficial for the students

all while improving the individual skills
of everyone of them.

So when we speak of meditation...

Actually the better expression
is “mind training”.

Meditation is about training the mind

to be more attentive, to be more...

benevolent, to be more compassionate,
to be more at peace, to be more free.

It’s not just sitting there and emptying
your mind, that doesn’t go anywhere.

Now everybody recognizes

that it’s eminently good
for mental health and physical health

to do five times 20 minutes
of physical exercise every week.

It’s even an antidote for depression.

Now imagine that twenty minutes

of loving kindness meditation

changes the 23 hours and 10 minutes
of the rest of the day,

including your sleep,

including your quality of relationships
with people at work and your family,

which are the main factors
actually for well-being,

the quality of human relations.

So, who would not go for that?

If we really want to know more
about effects of meditation,

you'll have to ask: “Which meditation?”

So it really depends which practice,
which mental practice, you do every day,

which effect you will see.

So there is nothing like
“the meditation practice”,

there is a family of a lot
of different meditation practices.

And some are, you know,
targeting more opening the heart.

Others are targeting
stabilizing your mind and attention.

Others are more reflective.
Others are more inter-subjective.

And so depending on
which practice you engage in,

you will have
very different effects in the brain,

even on the level of body
and subjective experience.

Now we see, there are
a lot of problems on this planet.

All these problems are related
with destructive emotions.

Anger, fear, distress.

These are related
with a self-centered attitude,

"Me! Me! Me!"

and create the strong feeling
of “we” and “they”.

“More suffering on them!”

Sometimes we feel happy.

So now this attitude must change.

I was impressed from the very beginning

when I went there to the conference
in Dharamsala and so on,

is the level
of scientific-minded discourse

these monks and His Holiness
the Dalai Lama have.

They are really interested
and know a lot about Western science,

much more than we know
about Buddhist philosophy.

They are very, very sharp minds.

So they are very logical
and in a way, very scientifically minded.

They learn how to debate
and how to use the logic.

So the questions sometimes are
sharp like knives and they really...

You know,

it’s different than being on the normal
neuroscientific, psychological conference

where you talk and debate
about “P values” and little data things.

In these dialogues with the Dalai Lama,

you really debate
the fundaments of science.

“Why do you do that?”
“Why do you assume that and that

in your scientific world?”

You get kind of more aware of the edges
of your belief system in science,

and you also get aware
that our scientific system

is a belief system, not just...

objective, pure, reality, you know?

Which is also just based on
a lot of assumptions and axiomatic.

These dialogues
are really fruitful to see that,

to become more aware of your limit.

Robert Thurman teaches
at Columbia University

and is one of the world leading experts
of Tibetan studies.

A student himself, Thurman has worked
alongside the Dalai Lama for years.

The findings of leading scientist
Amishi Jha

have shown that mindfulness training
improves numerous aspects

of both cognitive and emotional health.

We came together
in a way where we were

really teasing apart issues

and exploring different ways
of knowing that were,

in a very refreshing way...

not familiar but...

it just sort of opened up the mind.

(funky music)

(in Tibetan)

OK, ready?

One, two, three.

Thank you.

- Good morning everybody.
- Good morning Your Holiness.

Good sleep?

Good.
How many hours?

Good morning everybody.

Good morning Your Holiness.

I’m Susan Bauer-Wu,
President of the Mind & Life Institute

and it is my great honor
to welcome each of you here

for the 33rd Mind & Life Dialogue.

And we are most privileged to meet here
in this extraordinary setting.

And while educational systems have long
prioritized the education of mind

as a pathway to a productive adulthood,
a material success,

within this room
are pioneers in the field,

who are poised to share
their latest findings

and their insights with us.

So it’s truly a privilege to be here
and to reimagine with all of you

how we can educate
not only the mind but the heart,

in pursuit of a kinder, more
compassionate and peaceful world.

It raises the fundamental question
of the relationship

between brain and mind.

So without brain activation,

there couldn’t be
emotion regulation as well.

- Would that be the case?
- Yes.

Yes. So...

Emotion regulation,
the way a neuroscientist would...

Through some surgery of brain,

can you really remove some emotion?

You can affect an emotion
but I wouldn’t say remove an emotion.

Of course our daily experience is:

at a physical level,

it's completely calm,

just a thought comes,

and during that thought,
some change happens.

So, the brain activity change
comes first?

Or the thought comes first?

There is research that suggests that...

Most neuroscientists would say

that the brain activity
and the thought co-occur.

This sounds a little bit like, you know,
someone patching up as you go.

You know Your Holiness, I often say

to my neuroscience colleagues,

there is what we call
the “hard problem” in neuroscience

which you, Your Holiness,
frequently come back to,

which is the problem of the relation
between the mind and the brain.

And most neuroscientists,
the vast majority,

dismiss it.

So you asked about surgery
for the brain before.

This man was the director of
the National Institute of Mental Health

in the United States for 13 years.

He was responsible over those 13 years
for a budget of 20 billion dollars

where he supported research.

And what he said is:

"I don't think we moved the needle
in reducing suicide,

"reducing hospitalizations,

"improving recovery
for tens of millions of people

"who have mental illness.”

And he said:
“I hold myself accountable for that.”

This is...

And so he has come
to the conclusion, Your Holiness,

that the methods for mind training

that are so important
in the Buddhist tradition,

that whole family of methods
is going to be the solution.

Not surgery and not drugs

because they haven’t impacted this
despite spending twenty billion dollars.

Today we will be focused
on the topics of attention

and meta-awareness.

When we’re reading a book,

we can be...

attentive to the words
and know the words that we’re reading

but our minds could be lost,
our minds could be wandering.

This happens,
maybe not with Your Holiness

but I can tell you
that in the United States...

Same experience!

Well, there are
scientific data showing that

at least in the United States,
on average, the average American adult

spends 47 % of his or her waking life

actually not paying attention
to what they’re doing.

They’re lost!

Think about it for a moment.

This means that at the age of 50,

we will have spent about 23 years
living in autopilot mode,

making unconscious decisions.

So what happens
when a judge doesn’t hear 47 %

of what a key witness
says during a trial?

Or when a soldier doesn’t listen
to 47% of the orders

imparted by his or her superior?

Or when a politician zones out

at a world summit
about complex international affairs?

You can see the pattern, right?

Amishi Jha’s labs with athletes,
Marines and judges among others

have been extremely significant.

Her mentor was Richie Davidson

and Amishi has been a part
of the Mind & Life community

for many years.

Amishi Jha from the University of Miami

will be discussing this

in basic research contexts.

What about Internal Distraction?

(speaking Tibetan)

For example, when someone is
in a completely absorbed state of mind,

whatever comes in the face
of sensory perceptions,

the person is not paying any attention,
he’s just completely focused.

And the point here is that
when we’re talking about mental training,

the domain
in which mental training occurs

is really at the level
of mind and thought,

not at the level of perception.

So this is where I’m very happy
to hear your view of that

because that is actually an open question
within cognitive psychology.

(indistinctive conversations)

...when an object appears very negative,

actually the 90% of that negativeness
is mental projection.

At the heart of the work
that we are engaged in

and the direction
of the work of Mind & Life,

it’s much more looking
at a collective well-being.

How can our work,
how can these conversations

across contemplative wisdom traditions
and across the sciences

and across sectors of society,

how can they come together

and intersect in a way
where we can improve

collective well-being?

So diversity and inclusion
is absolutely really important

and we’re not just limiting it
to North America and to Europe,

but we’re really interested
in expanding contemplative sciences

and the impact
of contemplative sciences worldwide.

And so we’re doing more global programs

and for example
we have a Research Institute,

the International Research Institute,
that’s happening in Japan this year

and we’ll be doing one
in South America in 2020.

Our program in Africa last year
was really significant.

It was the first program
we had ever done in Africa

and it was in partnership
with our African colleagues

on a theme called “Ubuntu”.

Ubuntu is an African
indigenous wisdom philosophy

that means: “I am because you are.
You are because I am.”

(conference room noise)

The Dalai Lama’s first trip to Africa
was set to be a historical world event.

External pressures attempted to stop
the Mind & Life Dialogues for months.

However the President of Botswana
Ian Khama

was determined to keep his commitment.

If you think alike,
in this very subtle ways

this brain has become similar,

more similar to your group
than a different group.

My name is Uri Hasson and I’m working
in neuroscience in Princeton University.

So I think there is something amazing
about us as human beings.

How can we cross cultures and communicate
with other people we never met before?

So what we try to understand
in my research

is what’s going on now in my brain
when I’m speaking with you.

And what is happening in your brain
now when you listen to me.

Basically we try to see

how information is flowing
from one brain to another brain.

We see that during good communication,

your brain as a listener

becomes similar
to my brain as a speaker.

The better the coupling

going from auditory areas
to how they process words,

sentences, ideas and emotions.

So the more I’m coupled to you,
I manage to take

more and more parts of your brain

and make them coupled
to my brain responses.

What we see in our study over and over

is that people are similar, you know?

I grew up in Tel-Aviv,
I am living in the U.S.

and now I’m speaking with you
in Africa, right?

And the reason why we can communicate

is because your brain
is similar to my brain.

You’re going to be more coupled
to people that think like you

and are in your group.

And now you should ask:

who is making us similar or different?

And then you realize
that it is external forces in the society

that try to make us
different than the other.

And to investigate
who is making us different

or similar to others,
is really important.

If I will not have a brain, there is
no way for me to talk with you,

or to move
or to raise my hand.

So there is a deep connection
between the mind and the brain.

But if we think about the statement
“I am because we are”,

the “because” is the interaction
of my brain with other brains.

So now you can see that the brain is
defined by other brains, by other people

and defined by the way they speak,

by the way they act,
by the way they think.

So it’s defined by other people’s minds.

So to understand one brain,

you need to understand how it’s connected
to other brains and other minds.

So the brain is never by isolation.

The brain takes the shape of the outside.

So now in terms of humanity,

whether we're Asian, European, African,

or Latin American...

we're all human being.

A lot of problems we are facing,
we are experiencing,

are due to secondary level
of differences,

including different faith,

and different nationality,

different culture.

Since these secondary levels
of differences are causing

the conflict,

now the only remedy is
that we must go to a basic level,

then we are
the same human beings.

In humanities, there are two forces.

One that makes us all similar

and one that makes us:

“my group versus your group”.

And when I’m thinking
about the Dalai Lama,

I’m thinking about people like Ghandi

or Nelson Mandela.

They try to bring humanities together

and say we don’t want these boundaries,
we are all equal, we are all human.

But always against it
there was the force of:

“You're different than me,

therefore you should be treated
in a different way."

And I think especially now in these days,
when you see what’s happening globally

and you see how again, we’re going
to cluster into different groups

and start fighting with each other,

there is a need
to establish common ground.

(percussions)

Here they are!
The Upper Story crew members.

Reunited in Bangalore,
in the south of India,

two intercontinental flights
and a domestic flight later

from Milan, New York,
London and Delhi.

Accompanying them,
the amazing Tenzin and Lobsang.

On their way towards
their destination, Mundgod,

they got a flat tyre but...
Hey, adventures happen, right?

After three hours of travel,

there is was, right in front of them:

the Drepung Monastery.

One of the three most important
monasteries of the Tibetan tradition,

perfectly rebuilt.

Impressive and enormous

and hosting 3,000 monks.

The crew members met up with Karma here,
an almost 80-year-old monk

who had been employed
at BBC for years,

and who excited by their visit
suggested many locations to shoot in.

Among these, the top of a water tank.

They did try to climb to the top
but you know,

with no safety rails and heavy gear...
not a good idea!

The reason for their trip?
A very special program.

According to your opinion,

what would you say?
Which is the heavier one:

the negative effects
or the positive effects of science?

I would argue that it is positive.

Firstly because,
as we were talking about,

the intent is good:
it is to know more about the world.

The negative of science is that you have
to believe in the method of science,

which creates
kind of a weird paradox,

because you will have to believe
in a system that inherently

is not about belief.

Now, you’re probably wondering:

how did a group of young Westerners
get access to a monastic settlement?

The Emory-Tibet Partnership
founded in 1998 by the Dalai Lama,

the dean of Emory University
at that time Robert Paul,

and Geshe Lobsang Tenzin Negi.

A unique educational endeavor,

it combines the best of the Western
and Tibetan Buddhist

scientific traditions

for their mutual enrichment
and for the discovery of new knowledge.

The academic and cultural programs
that the Emory-Tibet Partnership offers

explore how science
and inner values meet

in an effort to address
humanity's greatest problems,

on more than a material level.

Here you will find students
from economics, philosophy, religion,

science, neurobiology and public health.

- Good morning!
- Good morning!

At every step of life

we are dependent on others.

Even the clothes we wear,
the breakfast we had today,

the electricity we have here.

Even...

having each other.

We would not have made it so far

if we were just by ourselves,

alone.

So you can see that interdependence

and how others are
so crucial for our own,

not just survival
but for flourishing and well-being.

Meditation is not just like
sitting on a meditation cushion.

You can use that
in all aspects of your life.

So that will help with frustration
and anger and any negative emotions

that we may experience.

Just being able
to call back in your mind

the meditative practices
that you’ve learned.

Meditation is a practice that

Buddhists and monastics do
for 20, 30, 50 years of their life

and it’s not something
that we’re going to get right away.

We’re also in a mind medicine
and healing class.

So that’s looking at Tibetan medicine

and comparing it

to more of a neurological Western
standpoint in medicine.

Tibetan medicine. So...

That’s really the class
that really draws me in.

I’m learning about a whole different
system of looking at health

and looking at disease and illness
and how to treat it, how to diagnose it,

which is completely different
from the West

where yourself and your body
are very separate.

So a doctor might treat your body

but you don’t feel like
you’re having a real effect on it.

You take the pill that your doctor
prescribes and that’s it.

As for me,
I think that in the future,

once I go on to medicine

and actually become a doctor,

I think it will definitely give me

a broader view of what health is.

I think in the West we view health
as the absence of illness.

So if you’re healthy,
it just means you’re not sick.

So it’s always viewed
in the light of negativity.

Versus like, I think, Tibetan medicine,

where to be healthy
is a constant process.

Your energies,
your behavior, your mentality

and your environment.

And everything has to do
with how healthy you are.

If there’s something out of balance,
that’s how you get sick.

And I really want to bring that
into Western medicine

and how I practice
and just be very aware and cognizant

that I’m not just treating my patient.

I’m treating
how he views the world.

I’m treating his environment

and to treat just his body
is doing a disservice to their health.

The Drepung Loseling Center
for Meditation and Science

was inaugurated
by the Dalai Lama in December 2017.

Today many other Tibetan monasteries

are building
their own scientific centers.

I’ve been able to study science
and I love science.

Even though I’m not
a Science major at school,

it’s still something that I think
is important to be educated about.

I’ve really been questioning
kind of what I value

and the directions
that I want to go into in my life.

I’ve kind of always I guess...

I was really struck by how I’ve made
a lot of my decisions in my life

based off of fear.

You know, fear of failure,

fear of doing something
and maybe getting hurt

so avoiding it
and just so many avenues...

I think here there’s just been
a lack of that fear.

I think it’s really great to just
be questioning things consistently

and what I want to value
and believe as a person.

So, as a Religion and Business major,

I think compassion can help
the business world tremendously

because I think so much of business
is based on human interactions

and so much of those interactions
are often seen as a zero sum game.

I give you something
and then if I give it to you,

it’s no longer mine.

And I think that this concept
of just mutual sharing

is so important
for all human interactions

and could really help the business world.

One institution like Emory University,

is a well-known, respected,
education institution.

Now since, I think,
more than 10, 15, 20 years,

we developed some sort of mutual work.

I really feel gratitude

that such a wonderful, great institution
really pay attention

and make certain significant
contributions regarding this field.

We need to create a culture

where people are more attuned
to their own feelings,

better able to control their impulses.

Human well-being depends also

on our emotional states,
emotional well-being.

Bringing modern science
in the monasteries, it’s not just

to inform the monastics
about the science and technology.

Of course that’s an important part.

The monastics need to be
21st Century monastics,

aware of what’s happening
out in the world.

But there is a deeper purpose

for the inclusion of modern science
in the monastic curriculum

and they understand
the scientific framework,

scientific language,
scientific tradition and methodologies.

They will participate

with the scientists on equal footing,

in collaborating in various research

and developing
the understanding of inner dimensions.

But this is a very monumental kind of...

change in this 600-year-old
monastic learning.

I have heard many things
about Emory University

from the professors
who usually come to teach in India

for the monks and nuns
for several years.

I have been in Emory University

for more than eight months.

I was one of the two nuns

who was chosen
as a Tenzin Gyatso Science Scholarship.

I know that there are

some supporters,

and some professors
who are really working hard

to get nuns to be part of this project.

You've got all of these neurons
that are built for growth and change.

It makes them happy,
they want to do it.

They want to create
these neural networks, right?

Much more than they like things
and material possessions.

You get a nice fancy watch,
it might be great for a while

but what do we know
about your sensory neurons?

What are they going to do?

Habituate to the feel of that watch
and pretty soon,

it's just another item
that you are not paying attention to.

There's no growth and change
in that watch.

And this is why,

If you want life happiness,
it's really about growth and change.

Before coming here,
we were in Dharamsala for a year.

We were preparing
to come to Emory University.

So we are here to study science,
and when going back to the monastery,

to teach science
to the other monastic fellows.

I like psychology class
because it shares many things

that are very related to Buddhism.

It talks about emotions, behaviors
and ways of thinking.

It's really interesting
because it's the same information

and that relates back
to perception, so...

I guess we are all looking
for something else,

but it's all there available.

What are we going to say
if the professor asks?

- You girls are going to eat?
- Yes, I'm cooking.

I’m in the second semester
and I still have a year to go.

Until now, the six of us
we are in the same subjects,

taking the same subjects.

But for the next semester,
we will be split off.

So I’m thinking of taking

Physics lecture and Physics lab,

also Biology lecture and Biology lab.

We can also

open our eyes
to the Western way of study.

Modern science or ancient science,

those two subjects are bridging together

for one goal

that calls better humanity.

For the last four or five hundred years,
with the advent of...

modern science and technology,
people somehow

gave...

more of a kind of credence, trust,

to external development.

Because, you know,

when it comes to basic needs

like the food and the medicine
and so forth,

those are more material,
sensorial resources that we need.

So obviously it makes sense that
when people are suffering

with all kinds of illnesses
and the lack of food,

when there's not enough food
and the population is growing,

that science has provided
a tremendous help

in maximizing crops
for example,

to the medicines and so forth,

and then improving the living conditions.

I think that for a long time,

the primary focus of the people,
the population,

has gone into external development.

And on the other side,

countries like India,

and certainly Tibet...

made the primary focus
about inner cultivation

and in such a way,

neglected to a certain extent
external development.

The thing is that now is the time

to bring these two together.

One is neither better or worse
than the other, we need both.

The Paradox of Happiness
or Paradox of Easterlin

was defined by American economist
Richard Easterlin in the 1970s.

It states that
past a certain level of wealth,

there is no longer a direct correlation
between the rise of one’s income

and the rise in personal happiness.

This discovery challenges
consumer culture

and the idea that well-being
can be reached

through the possession of things.

One important thing
is the education system.

I have a very very critical view

of existing so-called modern education.

It is very much oriented
about material value.

So people

who come through
that kind of education,

they only think
about material value.

Now it is very clear that generations

who come through
that kind of education,

eventually you see,
create a more materialistic life.

Now today’s world is like that.

Materialistic culture.

So,

in the material field,

there's competition.

And exploitation,

cheating,

in order to gain more

profit.

We are social animals.

Individual happiness, individual success,

even individual survival,
depends on the rest of the community.

So if one individual remains
distant from the community

with suspicion, with jealousy,

with extreme competitive feelings,

then that individual

cannot be a happy one.

Because the individual’s future
depends on the community.

The community is
the basis of our happy life.

So compassion brings together.

Anger and jealousy make distance.

These are basic human values,

irrespective of
whether believer or non-believer.

These are basic human values.

One of the strongest instincts
that social animals have

is the sympathy,
this capacity to “feel for”.

And in the species where you find

the sympathy shared
in more of the members of a group,

those species flourish.

Where it is missing,
those species perish.

All human activities,

the prime mover is our emotions.

So we are dealing with emotions.

Once our emotions are more...

More positive, more reasonable,
more constructive,

then every one of our actions
becomes constructive.

Including economy. Everything.

If our emotions, motivations,

have too much self-centered attitude
or are too oriented about money or power,

then even religion also becomes dirty.

Now usually people call “dirty politics”,

but politics itself is nothing.

It depends on the politicians.

Those who use politics more honestly,

more truthfully, with moral principles,
make good politics.

Too much narrow-minded, self-centered
attitudes, cheating other people,

bullying other people,
make dirty politics.

So we are dealing
with the motivation level.

So the thing is

that we are facing many challenges.

Short-term of the economy,
mid-term of quality of life,

social justice, inequalities
and long-term of the environment.

Ok? So we need one concept
to work together.

I think we can say reasonably
most people want a better world.

Except a few crazy maniacs.

So we need to work together.

Scientists of the environment
should be able to talk to financiers

and politicians.

They work on a different timescales,
so it’s like a...

schizophrenic dialogue because one
speaks about a hundred years,

one speaks
about the end of the year profit

and one speaks of re-election
in five years.

So they don’t speak of this.
We need a unifying concept.

Everybody can work together
for a better world.

Selfishness will not do the job.

If you are selfish you don’t care
about future generations,

you don’t care for the poor
in the midst of plenty,

you don’t care about anything
except yourself.

Now the only concept that helps
to bring those things together,

three timescales
- short-term, mid-term, long-term -

is having more consideration
for others. Altruism.

We know from neuroscience

that there are
sensitive periods in brain development

between the ages
of roughly four and seven years

during which the brain is more plastic,
more receptive to input,

more amenable to change.

And if we can change
the brain at these early ages,

we can set kids up for a more positive
developmental trajectory.

All of our work,

as we’re looking
at collective well-being,

it is something that we’re not...

you can’t easily
and quickly just measure it.

It’s the long-term vision.

And so an example of that is
with social and emotional learning

and bringing in secular ethics,
bringing in compassion,

compassion into
the education of our youth.

We’re not going to see
the results of that tomorrow,

but we know it’s the right thing.

It’s to begin to...

shine the light on how we can begin to...

transform individuals,

transform institutions,
transform systems

and minimize the suffering in the world.

We human beings, this brain
is something very special brain.

So now, this brain

can see more holistic.

Short-term interest
and long-term interest.

If we want a happier world,

a peaceful century,

then we must look at our emotions.

Positive emotions,
constructive emotions.

Destructive emotions.

I think the biggest learning experience
is people that you interact with,

that you at first may think:
“This person is so different from me.”

You can really connect with anyone.

When you really

you know, become aware.

It’s a personal awareness.

Why should I stay backward
instead of going forward?

We all have
the same basic nature of our mind.

As human beings we actually do have
the power to be able to shift

our thoughts.

You have the ability to change

your environment, your health
and those around you.

Really get at the core principles of love

and kind of just decreasing the ego.

Now what we need is more compassion,
more cooperation,

more caring.

Global cooperation
is not just some “va-va” term

but it’s actually a necessity
for the planet to survive.

If we really make an effort

with vision,

we can change.

SUBTITLING: Zuzu F - Romania