The Buddhist And The Neuroscientist
Exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama speaks during a press conference at the Bella Sky Hotel in Copenhagen on February 11, 2015 during his visit to Denmark. The Dalai Lama visits seven Buddhist organisations in Denmark as the government draws criticism for not arranging a meeting with the religious leader . AFP PHOTO / SCANPIX DENMARK / CLAUS BECH (Photo credit should read CLAUS BECH/AFP/Getty Images)
Exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama speaks during a press conference at the Bella Sky Hotel in Copenhagen on February 11, 2015 during his visit to Denmark. The Dalai Lama visits seven Buddhist organisations in Denmark as the government draws criticism for not arranging a meeting with the religious leader . AFP PHOTO / SCANPIX DENMARK / CLAUS BECH (Photo credit should read CLAUS BECH/AFP/Getty Images)

In 1992, the neuroscientist Richard Davidson got a challenge from the Dalai Lama. By that point, he’d spent his career asking why people respond to, in his words, “life’s slings and arrows” in different ways. Why are some people more resilient than others in the face of tragedy? And is resilience something you can gain through practice?

The Dalai Lama had a different question for Davidson when he visited the Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader at his residence in Dharamsala, India. “He said: ‘You’ve been using the tools of modern neuroscience to study depression, and anxiety, and fear. Why can’t you use those same tools to study kindness and compassion?’ … I did not have a very good answer. I said it was hard.”

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