The Dalai Lama

THE DALAI LAMA AND PAUL EKMAN

BROTHERS IN EMOTIONAL RESEARCH

A UNIQUE FRIENDSHIP

Dr. Paul Ekman has had the honor of developing a unique friendship with His Holiness the Dalai Lama of Tibet (known as “the Dalai Lama”). Through this friendship, the two have collaborated on several projects that have joined eastern traditions with western science. The two met first in March of 2000 in Dharamsala, India. Traveling at the invitation of the Mind & Life Institute, Dr. Ekman participated in the eighth of a series of private dialogues between the Dalai Lama and preeminent western scientists.

EMOTIONAL AWARENESS

Many hours of conversation have been filmed, and edited, with Ekman’s commentary. Highlights of their conversations can be found in Emotional Awareness: Overcoming the Obstacles to Psychological Balance and Minding Emotions. The Dalai Lama and Paul Ekman share their thinking about how to avoid destructive emotional episodes and maximize constructive emotional experience by cultivating awareness of our impulses and feelings of the moment.

GLOBAL COMPASSION

Their next dialogue took place at Tibet House in New Delhi, India during January of 2012. That meeting has been published as a series of videos on this site, and as a book entitled Moving Toward Global Compassion.

ATLAS OF EMOTIONS

In 2016, Drs. Paul and Eve Ekman created the Atlas of Emotions at the request of the Dalai Lama. The Atlas is an interactive tool which builds your emotional vocabulary and illuminates your emotional world. The Dalai Lama and Paul Ekman share their thinking about how to avoid destructive emotional episodes and maximize constructive emotional experience by cultivating awareness of our impulses and feelings of the moment.

DR. EKMAN'S BLOG