Imagine a ship that is sinking and needs all the available power to run the pumps to drain out the rising waters. The first-class passengers refuse to cooperate because they feel hot and want to use the air-conditioner and other
Archive du blog pour April 2013
Reincarnation is not the rebirth of a self
First of all, it’s important to understand that what’s called reincarnation in Buddhism has nothing to do with the transmigration of some ‟entity” like an autonomous ‟self”. It’s not a process of metempsychosis.
As long as one thinks in terms
Magic hours in the Himalaya
This image was taken during late afternoon, in Nepal, this fall. To balance the sky and the earth, and restore why the human eye sees (but what the captor does not register because of the limitation of it’s contrast range),
Daniel Batson and the ‟Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis”
During the recent preparatory meeting for the Mind and Life Institute’s conference on ‟Altruism and Compassion in Economics” (to be held in Zurich in April, see www.compassionineconomics.org), I had the chance to spend time with Daniel Batson, an eminent American
Give Altruists a Chance
Recently, while preparing the ‟Mind and Life Institute” meeting that will be held next April (www.compassionineconomics.org), I had the opportunity to speak with the participants who will take part in this conference, including Ernst Fehr, the renowned Swiss economist. For
The Melting of Glaciers in the Himalayas
During the last few years, there has been dramatic changes in the Himalayan glaciers. These two photographs of the Langtang Range were taken from the same place, the first one at the end of September 2006, and the second one
Non-violence is not weakness
When we are the object of abuse or injustice, it is absolutely legitimate to use whatever means might be appropriate, including any necessary force; but never with hatred.
Deep within ourselves, it’s important to maintain invincible compassion and inexhaustible inner
Environment and Altruism
Recently during the course of only one day I heard these facts about the environment:
1) The Greenland glaciers are melting much faster than previously thought. This is because of the cumulated effects of the melting ice and the acceleration
A Meeting with Youth
Sometime ago, I met with a group of young people in Canada. Some of them told me that they had graduated from college and did not know what to do next. One of them said, ‟I filled out a lot
A Delightful Conversation on Creativity
During the recent Peace Summit in Vancouver, which was organized around His Holiness the Dalai Lama, I was fortunate to moderate a dialogue on creativity.
Murray Gell-Mann, the Nobel price laureate of physics who discovered the quarks, described how mathematician