Leading psychologist Paul Ekman received an invitation to a
Mind and Life Conference with the Dalai Lama in 2000. He went because he knew
it would it please his daughter, an admirer of the Dalai Lama. Ekman himself
had no great knowledge of Buddhism and no religious beliefs or practices of his
own. What happened as a result of this initial encounter changed Ekman's life,
both personally and professionally. He hit it off with the Dalai Lama,
experiencing a warmth and openness that affected him emotionally and that
puzzled him as a scientist. And he learned things about the Buddhist tradition
that triggered new perspectives and research agendas from him about the
emotions and how we humans can learn to better cultivate them. This book
records conversations held between Ekman and the Dalai Lama over several years.
These transcripts and sidebars become a treasure-trove of insight into this
most basic human (and animal) phenomenon that Buddhism has explored more than
two millennia via introspection (meditation). Now science is taking a closer
look at, especially with the advances in neuroscience and other techniques that
provide us new ways of viewing and testing emotions. This book allows any
reader can come away with a better understanding of how we live our emotional
lives, and how we can cultivate those emotions for our own good and the good of
those with whom we live. No small accomplishment.
The first two of the Four Noble Truths espoused by the
Buddha state his assessment of the human condition. The First Noble Truth: Life
is unsatisfactory. (More often, we see the original Sanskrit or Pali translated
as “suffering”, but I agree that this word is perhaps too aggressive in its
portrayal of the original insight.) The Second Noble Truth: The cause of suffering
[or unsatisfactoriness] is attachment. Attachment, as you learn, can mean
craving for something (greed), craving to escape something (aversion, hatred),
or ignorance of the situation (delusion). So what has this to do with emotions?
Via natural selection, mammals, and especially humans, developed emotions that
refined our ability to approach or avoid. Mixed with our hyper-sociability (Jon
Haidt), we developed a wide variety of emotions that attract or repel us from
various perceived situations. Natural selection armed us over millions of years
with these mind tools, but with the advent of civilization (living in cities
instead of small hunter-gatherer groups), our array of emotions, such as anger
and hatred, for instance, could lead us astray. Robert Wright argues in his
course on Buddhism and Modern Psychology (now offered on Coursera) that
Buddhism is an antidote to some aspects human behavior instilled in us by
natural selection. Instead of acting on our feelings of attachment (“Yum,
doughnuts! Let’s feast”) or aversion (“Your rotten SOB”), we learn to get
between our emotions—developed for quick perceptions and responses—and our
actions. This is a fundamental insight shared between HHDL and Ekman, each
coming at the issue from their different traditions but finding a lot of
agreement. Ekman calls a pause in our reactions a “refractory period”, which
may be micro-moment, or—with cultivation—something much longer.
After spending time defining emotions—different from moods,
we should note—the two discuss how we might learn to tame them (and not, as
some think Buddhism suggests, eliminate them). Here we learn of the benefits of
meditation as a mechanism for developing awareness, a meta-awareness (B. Alan
Wallace) that allows us to observe the development of an emotion within us and
thereby make a conscious decision about how we shall (or shan’t) act in
response to the impulse. This ability, along with the conscious cultivation of
compassion, allows us to take ourselves in happier and more sociable directions
than the naturally selected traits of our emotions might push us.
The above is just a taste of what the book covers. In
addition to insights into basic and ongoing Western scientific research about
the emotions and the Buddhist insights cultivated over 2000 years, we learn
about the participants, especially Ekman. Ekman’s insight that he changes over
the course of these conversations (estimated at about 39 hours) is really
moving. Ekman grew-up with a very difficult father, and Ekman shares insights he
gains about himself and that relationship. Ekman’s growth of insight and
appreciation gives the book an emotional (in a very good way!) valence that
adds spice to the wonderful scientific and Buddhist knowledge and wisdom that
we garner through it.
The emotions are an endlessly fascinating topic. The quality
of our lives is a function of our emotions. Much of morality and ethics revolve
around our emotions and how we handle them. Indeed, not just Buddhism, but all
of the Axial religions and philosophies—later Judaism, Christianity, Islam,
Socratic philosophy and its progeny, especially Stoicism, Confucianism, and
aspects of Taoism and Hinduism—are efforts to re-direct human conduct from
older, more atavistic (and now less well-adapted) traits vested in humans via
natural selection. These religions and philosophies (philosophy, that is, “as a
way of life”, in the words of Pierre Hadot) developed in response to a very
different environment (civilization) than that of the hunter-gatherers from
whom we descended. The challenge to us is to use the wisdom of these traditions
and refine them (no more required, I suspect) to best fit our contemporary
needs. This book goes a long way in forwarding that project. We must thank Dr.
Ekman and the Dalai Lama for their courage in reaching across traditions to
help us find our way.
P.S. This is a second take on this book. Indeed, blog 5/682 (i.e., near the beginning of my blogging) addresses my listening to this as an audio book. It was definitely worth a second take!
