Darwin, the Dalai Lama and the Nature of Compassion Dr Paul Ekman
Dr Ekman once read to the Dalai Lama a passage from Charles Darwin’s The Descent of Man that said one of humankind’s noblest virtues “seems to arise incidentally from our sympathies becoming more tender and more widely diffused, until they are extended to all sentient beings.” After hearing this, His Holiness told Dr Ekman, “I am a Darwinian.” About Paul Ekman Internationally known for his studies on the correlations between facial expressions and human emotions, Dr Ekman is also the inspiration for the television drama series Lie to Me. The Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education is a secular and non-political charitable organization based in Vancouver, Canada that educates the heart and fosters compassion through creative learning, facilitating and applying research, and connecting people and ideas. Previous Speaker Series guests included Daniel Siegel, Robert Putnam and Daniel Goleman. For more information on the DLC, visit our web site at dalailamacenter.org. |