His Holiness Attends Mind and Life Conference in Zurich[Friday, 9 April 2010]

His Holiness the Dalai Lama (4th left) speaks at the opening session of the Mind and Life XX Conference in Zurich, Switzerland, on 9 April 2010

Session 1After
introductory remarks by Adam Engle, CEO and co-founder of the Mind
& Life Institute, Rector Andreas Fischer – the President of the
University of Zurich – welcomed everyone and introduced His Holiness
the Dalai Lama.  His Holiness then took the stage and said, “I do not
know how to make money.  But I know it can be useful.”  He relayed a
story where he asked one of his business friends about the roots of the
current economic crisis, and his friend told him it was greed, possibly
even the desire to cheat for profit.  “Even I know this is bad for the
economic system,” His Holiness said. He also spoke of a wish for all of
us to continue striving for enhanced wisdom, and pondered whether the
results of this conference may point toward a better direction for
economic systems. Roshi Joan Halifax outlined the direction of
the conference and handed it over to the presenters.  Dan Batson, of
the University of Kansas, opened with a very direct question – Does
altruism exist?  After speaking about egoism and empathy, he referenced
empathy-based experiments and what they might infer.  Tania Singer, of
the University of Zurich, explained two neural routes to understanding
others’ minds – via empathy and compassion and via the “theory of
mind,” the conscious thinking of someone else’s mental state. After
explaining neural networks and their relation to compassionate thoughts
and feelings, she talked of how some people have a deficit in
comprehending their own feelings. Studies of meditation have been shown
to help this deficiency.  Richard Davidson, of the University of
Wisconsin, followed up on these ideas and posited two big points – that
there are different levels of empathy and compassion in people, which
have biological roots, and empathy and compassion can be regarded as
skills, which can be trained and enhanced. He then reviewed
neuroscientific research in these areas; results showed that subjects
who had more extensive mental training had a greater tendency to
exhibit signs of altruism.  Matthieu Ricard, of Shechen Monastery,
presented last and helped enlighten the audience to Buddhist notions of
compassion, empathy and altruism.  For example, compassion is the
desire to help alleviate suffering in others, whatever it may be. Session 2The
afternoon session began with Joan Silk of UCLA, who defined altruism
biologically, as seen in other species. Research has shown that
altruism is common and beneficial in many species.  As humans develop
during childhood, they trend away from this commonality in other
species.

Audience at the Mind & Life conference in Zurich

 One
notable exchange during the conversation with His Holiness went as
follows.  “Does hostility come from not being connected?  For instance,
if bees from one colony are mixed with bees from another colony, do
they see each other as alien or other?” Joan replied, “There doesn’t
seem to be much flexibility in their behaviour, though I do not know
much of bees.  So the ‘outgroup’ or ‘other’ perspective seems to remain
intact.” His Holiness mused, “Does biological altruism require the
ability to appreciate others?  Mosquitoes, I think, have no
appreciation!  One may land on me, and I let it feed.  But then it
flies away and shows no appreciation!” Ernst Fehr of the
University of Zurich then talked about how true altruism in humans is
rare, as we normally want or expect benefit for our costs, especially
within economics. He defined altruism as actions to benefit an ‘other,’
but at cost to the actor and with no envisioned gain for the actor at
the outcome, except possibly psychological benefit like happiness.
Tania Singer then spoke about 3 motivational systems in the human
brain: incentive-focused, threat-focused, and
non-wanting-affiliation-focused.  She talked of experiments to increase
trust among individuals.  John Dunne, of Emory University, explained
compassion and altruism from the Buddhist perspective as they might
relate to economics.  One of the ultimate goals is happiness, so what
are the costs and resources needed to attain that goal?  The resources
are internal, and thus of the highest value.  If we can realign our
priorities to focus on maintaining and enhancing our internal
resources, we may see a shift toward a better economic system.  He
spoke of a Buddhist technique of internalizing the idea that all
sentient beings were at some point your mother in a previous life; you
can extend the feeling or connection you have with your mother to all
beings.  “Not that everyone has the greatest connection with their
mother, but you understand what I mean,” John said.  “I had a GOOD
mother, though, just to be clear.” “So did I,” laughed His Holiness. So,
today was a ground-laying time of concepts and large ideas, setting us
up for tomorrow, which will start exploring possibilities of where we
go and of applied economics to further some of these ideas.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama (R) with Rector Andreas Fischer, President of the University of Zurich (L)at the opening session of of the Mind and Life XX Conference in Zurich, Switzerland, on 9 April 2010

During
the lunch break, His Holiness the Dalai Lama said at the Meet the Press
session, “Recent economic crisis shows money fails to bring inner
peace.” His Holiness spoke about two of his three commitments in life
1) human value and 2) religious harmony. His Holiness said that
this year marks the 50th Anniversary of Tibetans arriving in
Switzerland. He said the Government of India had extended maximum
assistance on the Tibetans arrival in India from Tibet. He thanked
Switzerland for welcoming Tibetan refugees. “It is our duty to thank
the Swiss government, (its) people and in particular the Swiss Red
Cross” for assistance to Tibetan refugees since 1960. Tibetan
spirit is very alive in Tibet and the community in exile carries the
same Tibetan spirit alive. Tibetans in Switzerland are good Swiss
citizens but carry Tibetan spirit and contributing to the Swiss economy.–Report filed by The Tibet Bureau, Geneva