By the Dalai Lama and Paul Ekman
(Reviewed by Kevin Knebl)

Dr. Paul Ekman is a world-famous psychologist, and the Dalai Lama is the leader of a millennia-old Tibetan Buddhist spiritual tradition. Bringing different perspectives to bear—Eastern and Western, spiritual and scientific, Buddhist and psychological—the Dalai Lama and Ekman sought to clarify these contradictions and illuminate some paths that might enable a balanced emotional life and a feeling of compassion that can reach across the globe.
 
Despite their differences, they discovered important common ground in their perspectives.

They both share a commitment to reducing human suffering, an intense inquisitiveness, and a conviction that they were both likely to learn from each other. Their conversations developed into an intense friendship over the course of the nearly 40 hours that they spent exploring these issues.

In this unparalleled series of conversations, the Dalai Lama and Ekman prod and push toward answers to the central questions of emotional experience.

What are the sources of hate and compassion? Should a person extend her compassion to a torturer—and would that even be biologically possible?

What does science reveal about the benefits of Buddhist meditation, and can Buddhism improve through engagement with the scientific method?

As they come to grips with these and other issues, they invite us to join them in an unfiltered view of two great traditions and two great minds.