Role of Compassion in Education and Wider Societal Context - VoiceTube: Learn English through videos!

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[ Music ]
>> Stanford University.
[ Noise ]
>> Good morning.
I'm Garry Steinberg director
of the Stanford Neuroscience Institute known as SINTN
and chairman of the department of neurosurgery and I'd
like to welcome His Holiness and thank him
for visiting us again at Stanford.
We very much enjoyed your public lectures yesterday as well
as the more intimate interactions we had with you.
I'd also like to welcome everyone in the audience today
and we hope you enjoy the symposium.
So before we start I'd like to remind everyone these are
key issues.
Keep your ticket with you at all times, be prepared to show it
at the lunch distribution which is offsite,
and the tickets are going to be required for reentry
to the building after lunch and anytime during the conference.
Emergency exits are located in the rear and the front sides.
Silence your cellphones, silence your pagers
and if you must answer a call go out to the lobby.
[ Pause ]
>> The goal of our Stanford Institute for Neural Innovation
and Translational Neuroscience is
to rapidly advance our understanding of the healthy
and the diseased brain and spinal cord at all levels
from molecules to cells to neuro circuits to behavior.
We aim to pioneer new techniques and tools to probe
and manipulate the nervous system
and translate these discoveries into improved quality of life
for patients with neurologic and psychiatric disorders.
And importantly we hope to translate these discoveries
and make a difference in outcome over the next 5 to 10 years.
So this is an aggressive program.
And to accomplish this we are fostering collaboration
between about 150 very talented basic translational
and clinical neuroscientists at Stanford.
We've got a number of broad initiatives in our institute
and you could see them here such as neuroplasticity and repair,
neurodegeneration and regeneration, cognitive
and developmental disorders and neuroengineering.
And we're focused on certain diseases like pain
and addiction, Parkinson's, spinal cord injury, blindness,
autism spectrum disorders, Down syndrome,
as well as a neuroengineering initiative.
We're taking advantage of Stanford's expertise
in these areas both to dissect mechanisms
and to repair the nervous system.
However, one of the most important platforms
and initiative in our institute is what we call neuroscience
and society.
Initially there was significant resistance from some
of the scientists at Stanford to include this platform
in our institute since it's not using molecular biology
or synaptic physiology techniques.
It doesn't investigate a specific disease
of the nervous system.
However, I feel this is really an essential platform.
In the last two decades advances in neuroscience research
and clinical therapies have already had a profound impact
on society and I predict they will have an even greater impact
in the future.
The center for compassion, research, education,
known as CCARE is the centerpiece of our neuroscience
in society initiative.
CCARE aims to use rigorous scientific methods to understand
and delineate the neural and psychological basis
for altruistic and compassionate behavior.
And now using Novel Technologies
like Functional MR brain scanning
and innovative approaches
like neuroeconomics, this is possible.
CCARE has been supporting the research you're going to hear
about in this symposium.
We wish to become the premier center in the world
for pursuing this kind of study.
We also hope to develop new methods
for instilling compassionate behavior in people
without necessarily spending 20 years meditating as a monk.
And I know this is also an important ambition
of His Holiness.
Although I'm not a Buddhist, one aspect of Buddhism
that I do admire is that Buddhism like science believes
in searching for truth through observation of empiric facts.
And if the observed facts refute,
even long standing Buddhist beliefs then they are discarded
for better theories, very much like science.
This point also has been made by His Holiness
on numerous occasions in his writings and actually yesterday.
His Holiness has been a great supporter
of neuroscience research and scientific inquiry in general.
During the symposium you will learn among other things why
brain activity in certain areas on functional MR scan
in the brain is increased
in some individuals during acts of charitable giving.
You'll learn that it's possible to enhance prosocial behavior
in mice using light stimulation
of specific neuro circuits in the brain.
You'll learn what motivates certain individuals
to put their own life in jeopardy in order
to save another person and you'll also learn
about the positive effect of CCARE's compassion,
cultivation training program
on promoting compassionate behavior.
CCARE is the brain child of Jim Doty who's sitting right here
and is going to say a few words shortly.
Jim is a neurosurgeon, a Stanford professor.
He's an entrepreneur and a philanthropist.
He's the founder and director of CCARE
and it was his idea to form the center.
Jim is one of the main reasons His Holiness, the Dalai Lama,
is spending today exploring the scientific basis for compassion
and altruism with a group
of international scientists whose work was funded by CCARE.
Jim will tell you some more about CCARE
and the research projects.
Please enjoy the symposium and thank your attention.
[ Applause ]
>> How are you?
We're great.
Yeah! [Applause] Thank you for spending your day
with us and my friends.
And thank you Dr. Steinberg, colleagues, guests,
and those who were visiting with us on the web.
Before we begin though, I would like to acknowledge
and thank all of those individuals who have helped
in organizing this wonderful visit by His Holiness
to Stanford and all
of the associated activities including our incredible
volunteer corps, many of who have been helping you today
and I thank them so much because without you people,
none of this possible, so thank you.
[ Applause ]
>> It's been a remarkable three years
since what was originally begun as an informal dialogue
with some of my colleagues based on my own interest
in understanding the complex human qualities of compassion
and altruism from the creation of CCARE.
More remarkable still is that not only is His Holiness
with us today, but that he is a passionate supporter
of this work, having given the largest personal donation he's
given to a non-Tibetan cause to support the work of CCARE.
And fundamentally, without his support of his initiative,
CCARE would not exist.
So thank you again, Your Holiness.
[ Applause ]
>> As many of you know and as Dr. Steinberg has eluded,
His Holiness has had an interest in neuroscience
for over two decades and has maintained an ongoing dialogue
with those who have sought
to understand how contemplative practices affect the brain
and its function.
This dialogue has led to extraordinary insights
and has been fundamentally responsible, I believe,
for the amazing interest among scientists throughout the world
in this new emerging field.
While His Holiness has always had an interest in neuroscience
and science of the mind, his fundamental message
that he has carried to the ends of the earth is the importance
of cultivating compassion if our species is to survive.
Our dialogue today will focus on this topic.
Before I begin though, I would
like to tell you a bit of a story.
And this was a story that Richie Davidson told me.
>> And Ritchie, some of you may know, is one of the pioneers
in the field of contemplative neuroscience
who has maintained this dialog with His Holiness
for greater than two decades.
And when they first went to India to begin this work,
the tool at that time that they were using to measure activity
in the brain was the electroencephalogram,
which I think most of you know what that is.
And that iteration of that device that they used
at that time was actually like a shower cap that you would put
on the head and it had all these electrodes coming out of it.
So imagine what that would look like to these group of monks
who they're going to test
who have never seen anything like this before.
So when this cap was put on, they all started laughing
because it had been explained to them that this was going to test
and examine emotions and how the brain works and some
of this complex things potential like compassion
and things of this nature.
And the scientist of course made the assumption
that the laughing was because they thought the sight
of this was funny.
What they were laughing at, in fact, was the naivete
of the scientist [laughter] because they knew
that it's not here it's here.
[ Laughter ]
[ Applause ]
>> When His Holiness speaks sometimes,
he talks about afflictions of the heart.
I would suggest to you that each of us has wounds to our heart
that most oftentimes heal very quickly.
But for most of us, I think, there are wounds to our hearts
that last with us a lifetime.
But it's not the wounds that we have, it is our [inaudible]
and it's what makes as human.
It is what we do when we feel the pain of these wounds
that defines our humanity.
And ultimately, will define and determine the fate
of our collective humanity.
The chain of causation that has resulted
in ecologic catastrophe, global warming, poverty, war,
these are not external events, external to ourselves.
I submit to you that they are problems of the human heart.
While science and technology offer great hope for many things
and told us technology is focused on afflictions
of the heart, I do not believe
that there is hope for our species.
Our interest at CCARE has, as Gary has said,
is to use the remarkable tools available today
to understand these complex qualities
of compassion and altruism.
And today, I'm honored to present
to you the initial efforts at Stanford of this work.
Our conversation today will be moderated by Arthur Zajonc,
the Andrew Mellon professor of physics
and interdisciplinary studies at Amherst.
In addition to being a visiting professor at a number
of the leading academic institutions
in the world regarding his work on parody violation in atoms
and the experimental foundations for quantum physics,
neither things I have any idea what they are exactly.
[Laughter] He has lectured extensively--
He has lectured extensively on the relationship,
more importantly, between the sciences,
humanities, and meditation.
He's the author of the book Catching the Light and co-author
of the book The Quantum Challenge
and Goethe's Way of Science.
Since 1977, he has served the scientific coordinator
of the Mind and Life Institute Dialogues
and on contemplative neuroscience
of which His Holiness has participated
in multiple occasions.
Before I give you Arthur Zajonc,
I would like to give His Holiness a baseball cap
from CCARE.
[ Laughter ]
[ Applause ]
>> And now I'll give you Arthur.
Thank you again so much.
[ Applause ]
>> Allow me to add my welcome to this conference today during
which we'll explore together this science
of compassion and altruism.
And also hear about the creation of a training program intended
to cultivate compassion.
Each of us knows first hand the real significance of these two
of compassion and altruism.
We received the compassion of others
and have extended ourselves compassion to those around us.
Truly many of us would not be alive today except of compassion
and altruistic behavior of those who've cared for us.
In rare instances a person's compassion
and altruism reached beyond the individual instances and seemed
to embrace a wider community or even humanity in general.
These are the great souls.
The great souls who embody and exemplify our highest ideals
for what it means to be a human being.
They carry not only their own suffering and not only
that of an individual close to them but they seemed capable
of carrying the suffering of many, sometimes of a great many.
How do such individuals arise?
Or more modestly, how do we cultivate greater compassion
and altruistic behavior generally?
And what role can science play in helping us to understand
and develop these prized dimensions of our humanity?
Yesterday, the Dalai Lama spoke to the central importance
of compassion and altruistic behavior
in our lives and society.
He spoke of how in the lasts few years, scientists
and educators are turning their attention
from material development and well-being to inner
or mental development and well-being.
Today's conference is the expression
of that shift redressing an imbalance between the inner
and outer dimensions of our lives.
The neglect of our interior or mental life in favor of mastery
of the physical, the physical world is shifting
and science is no longer seen as opposing,
for example, spirituality.
The Dalai Lama has written with the ever growing impact
of science in our lives, religion
and spirituality have a greater role to play
by reminding us our humanity
and there is no contradiction between the two.
Today, we'll go deeply into the biological
and psychological foundations of compassion and altruism.
And during the course of the day in four sessions,
our remarkable group of researchers in the field
of psychology, neuroscience, education,
and even economics will speak about their research and that
of other as it bears on our theme.
We have the great privilege of not only hearing from them
but also from His Holiness, the Dalai Lama
who has been an advocate for the cultivation of compassion
and altruism throughout his life time.
He is one of those whose concern
and care has extended far beyond his narrow circle
of personal relations.
So that when he speaks about the compassion and altruism
of this conference, he does so not only with the authority
of deep Buddhist practitioner and scholar but he also speaks
as one who has come to embody and to live a life
of compassion and altruism.
Theory is here truly joined in practice
with His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama.
>> We are profoundly grateful to you.
We are profoundly grateful to you
that you are with us here today.
Thank you very much.
[ Applause ]
>> Each of our four sessions,
will last about 50 minutes to an hour.
The first part of each session, will begin--
will be a set of presentations to His Holiness, 5 to 10 minutes
in length, depending on the session.
And we've set this up in a way that you are really intended
to imagine that you are in His Holiness's living room.
This actually happens over many decades he has hosted scientists
in his private quarters and we come together
in a situation not unlike this in an intimate context
to spend time together five or so days together speaking
about themes such as compassion, altruism,
and even quantum mechanics and parody violation.
[Laughter] So imagine that this is your-- this his living room,
you're listening in on a conversation between a group
of scientist who are presenting their research results.
He is asking questions,
we're engaging together in that conversation.
So the stage is set.
Let me introduce the first group who will be speaking
to our theme for this session the role of compassion
in education and wider societal context.
First of all, of course, there is His Holiness, the Dalai Lama,
who since he was 15 years old has been the secular
and religious leader of Tibet living exile from his homeland
since 1959 when he was about 24 years old.
He's also the winner of the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize
and as we all know a tireless advocate for the cause of Tibet
and the teachings of Buddhism.
He calls himself a simple monk,
but I think we all recognize the complexity
and depth of his life.
The lies as superficial interpretation
of what it means to be simple.
And yet our own Oliver Wendell Holmes has written
about another kind of simplicity
which I think is characterized by His Holiness.
Holmes writes, "I would not give a fig for the simplicity
on this side of complexity, but I would give my life
for this simplicity on the other side of complexity."
I would say that in this sense,
His Holiness has achieved the honored status of a simple monk.
He will be interpreted when necessary
by Geshe Thupten Jinpa, who's himself a great scholar
and practitioner of Buddhism.
He is also adjunct professor of religious studies here--
Adjunct Professor of Religious Studies at McGill University
and Visiting Scholar and Executive Committee member
of CCARE here at Stanford University.
Jinpa.
[ Applause ]
>> Next, let me introduce Professor Linda Darling Hammond,
Professor of Education here at Stanford.
She has argued convincingly for the crucial importance
of equal access to education and has emphasized a crucial role
of those who teach and therefore of teacher quality.
Professor Darling Hammond has been named as one
of the nation's 10 most influential people affecting
education policy over the last decade.
Linda, thank you.
[ Applause ]
>> The last member of our group is Professor Phil Zimbardo,
who is professor of Emeritus of Psychology at Stanford
and past president
of the American Psychological Association.
A prolific researcher and author
who has studied most recently everyday heroes
about what we'll hear more.
Phil, thank you for being here.
[ Applause ]
>> So before we begin, I'd like to invite His Holiness
to make any opening remarks that he would like to
in welcoming you all and in anticipation of our theme
for today concerning research into compassion and altruism.
Do you have anything you like to offer?
[ Inaudible Remark ]
>> Yeah.
>> Okay.
[ Pause ]
>> Now a person now [inaudible] more than 25 years old.
When I'm born on this planet,
almost now starting Second World War, certified,
then more violence at often China.
And then during Second World War and Hiroshima
and Nagasaki doing nuclear bomb actually used on human being.
To a nuclear physics, one of, I think, graves advances
in science, the systemology,
so the [inaudible] development science technology.
Of course there are other benefits of system there.
But it also brought untenable suffering
and even September 11th even using civilian airplane
and that airplane also the lost also the fuel
and used for destruction.
Few thousand people killed.
So science technology-- a development of science
and technology alone,
no guarantee whether really bring happiness
on this planet or not.
So I do not think technology itself
or science itself is eventually show us some kind
of guarantee it will not go destructive way, no.
Because technology, science using by human being.
So ultimately, it depends, the user's way of thinking.
If the user full of hatred and also I think mixed with feared,
then these things become destructive.
So ultimate, sort of guarantee, this-- also the new findings.
Technology and it's marvelous or technology and science in order
to become constructive.
Ultimately depend the user's mind, emotion.
Then look-- the user's sort of nature.
We human being from birth, always anger, hatred, no.
I think the whole life from the beginning of birth till death,
I think of major of portion of our life as a more
and more affection, friendship, trust.
Even you want a sound sleep, your mental state peaceful,
happy, better, full of fear, full of anger, even sleep,
you can't get [inaudible].
>> And food also, beautiful food in front of you, but the person
who going to eat that full of fear, full of hatred.
Even the taste, so the [inaudible] get--
[Jinpa: Experience] [inaudible] [Jinpa:
May not experience the taste, enjoy the taste]
>> So our whole life, the peaceful mind,
closeness [inaudible] each other, is the foundation
of a happy life, youthful life.
So then of course all these religious sort of traditions,
major tradition is life at major.
That means a tradition
with certain philosophy [inaudible] background.
Not symbols of [inaudible] or something
without philosophy sort of background.
That's something different.
So major is this tradition, all carry the importance of practice
of compassion, forgiveness, tolerance.
I'll-- This sort of tragedy have been awhile, many people pray.
[Laughter] So pray alone--
prayer alone will not get guarantee.
[Laughter] Of course I'm Buddhist.
The Buddha full of mercy, compassionate person.
Then according to [inaudible] religion,
the God full of compassion.
But that not sufficient.
[Laughter] Bring real happy world.
So ultimately, the responsibility,
relying on our own shoulder.
I see here Buddha made very clear.
I simply show you of how to achieve permanent happiness.
But after all, all the responsibility on your shoulder.
Buddha said that.
I think that's a quite a scientific way.
[Laughter] Buddha never say
if you pray me then everything will alright.
He never said that.
[ Laughter ]
>> So and then top of that there are large number of people say
in real sense not a believer.
Just religion take as a--
[ Inaudible Remark ]
>> -- tradition or custom, like that, not many serious.
So then one way we really need the human being sort
of attitude should be more positive, responsible.
And prayer, religion-- also there's limitation.
So ultimately we, ourselves, have many responsible.
So, and also that everybody have the potential
of this positive thing.
So now in order to make clear to people,
ultimately peaceful life, happy life,
much depend on an equality.
Usually the people just say now I think the [inaudible]
or lot of money.
No organization, I think at least government level,
I think no organization who really paying more attention
about fundamental [inaudible] human values, nobody,
only religious people.
But there-- also there's a limitation
and many people don't care what religion say.
So then as a Buddhist, Buddha-- [foreign language].
Now we need-- [inaudible] there are science.
[Applause] So if science say, oh,
compassion is rubbish, not much are useful.
Then hopeless, [inaudible] through--
science means through research, through investigation,
through experiment some concrete as outcome,
concrete sort of evidence come.
So that's very, very powerful.
And the science I think [inaudible] later part
essentially, mainly to concentrate
on external things, natural things.
Not sort of pay attention about scientist themselves.
[Laughter] Scientist, human being.
Scientist also you see suffering fear,
doubt or too much competition.
[ Laughter ]
[ Applause ]
>> So I think-- I think those greatest sort
of scientist also may experience sleepless nights
and many sleepless nights because of anxiety,
because of some other things.
So therefore, now you see,
seems [inaudible] essentially no scientist are really begin
to look what's a mind, what's a self,
what is the real ultimate source of inner peace.
So it is really wonderful, really wonderful.
So I always telling people than [inaudible] to make importance
of compassion or peaceful mind.
I always rely the scientific sort of finding.
So it is really very, very important.
Now the science research I feel-- I always expressing,
there're two purposes.
One purpose simply extends our knowledge.
What's the reality?
Another purpose is out of that knowledge how
to bring maximum benefit to individual human being,
to community, to the society
or to [inaudible] humanity to the world.
So two purposes.
So now this researcher work, you're sort of famous sort
of university and also the [inaudible] university
and [inaudible] university as far
as I know these three universities actually now
involving this work.
I really grateful.
So that's my view, my thinking.
That's all, that's all, nothing.
[ Applause ]
>> Thank you your Holiness.
Thank you.
I think that the work at those three universities probably
benefited by some of your encouragement and presence.
So thank you also for helping them to see the importance
of these themes for science.
So we're going to begin our conversation and session
with two short contributions.
First from Phil Zimbardo and then from Linda Darling Hammond
about 5 or 6 minutes each and then that would be the basis
for a conversation until the next session.
So I'm going invite then Phil to begin with us.
Thank you, Phil.
>> Well I want to begin, Your Holiness, with-- Hello?
>> Oh, yes.
>> I want to begin-- I wanna begin with a greeting,
a good morning greeting from another beautiful day
at Stanford University.
And I'd like to lead-- I'd like to lead the audience
in a good morning-- Your Holiness.
>> Do we need more sound?
[Audience: Yes!] Alright, sound techs back there,
can we have more sound please for Phil Zimbardo?
>> Hello? Hello, hello.
Okay. I want--
[ Laughter ]
>> I wanted to begin with a greeting.
[ Inaudible Remarks ]
>> Little more, needs more sound.
>> Hello?
>> Wanna go up to the--
>> CCARE, CCARE, CCARE donate to CCARE, CCARE.
[ Laughter.
Applause ]
>> Okay. Okay, since the audience is engaged,
I wanted to begin with a good morning greeting
on another beautiful day at Stanford University.
And I wanna lead the audience in a resounding,
"Good morning, Your Holiness."
>>[ Audience: Good morning, Your Holiness.]
>> Great. [Applause] So I'm honored and privileged
to lead off this day of dialogue you'd be having
with my psychological colleagues
with educators and neuroscientists.
Many of whose research are being supported by CCARE and I'm proud
to be on the board of CCARE.
In this little time we have together I'd
like to do three things.
I wanna start with a provocative,
maybe challenging question, is compassion enough
in a world filled with evil?
Is traditional compassion enough?
Does compassion not have to be socially engaged?
And in fact, does compassion not have
to be transformed into heroic action?
Secondly this is a group
that I've organized called a Heroic Imagination Project whose
mission is exactly that.
How do we go beyond compassion?
Which is really the highest personal virtue to heroism
which is the highest civic virtue requiring action
to change suffering but also to change the causes of suffering?
And lastly, I wanna present some new research funded by CCARE.
It's among the first research to explore the nature
of heroism and altruism.
And curiously there's a lot of research on evil some
of which I have created as a mad scientist
in my Stanford laboratory.
But there's almost no research on heroism.
So I just wanna begin with that question
of traditional compassion.
Means, you put yourself in the moment
to share the suffering of another person.
But do you not have to have a socially engaged compassion
to try to prevent suffering, to try to deal with evil
of bullying of prejudice, of terrorism, of war, of poverty.
And so that's a question that in our discussion I'd
like you to address.
Secondly, we have started
in San Francisco a nonprofit organization called the Heroic
Imagination Project.
And the idea is how do we empower ordinary people to start
on a journey to become everyday heroes.
That is to take little acts of kindness, of sharing,
of mindfulness to help change the world for better.
How do we get people to put their best selves forward
in service to humanity?
And we do this in part through education.
We're developing courses in our local schools
in San Francisco and Palo Alto.
And when we know something works then the virtue is putting it
on the World Wide Web, sending it around the world
of teaching people how to be wise, effective, compassionate,
and mindful heroes especially our young people.
But we're also stimulating research.
We want to have heroism in-- as part of heroism ideas
and compassion as part of corporations.
And lastly, public engagement, to become a health hero.
If you stop somebody from smoking, you save a life.
It's exactly like jumping in a river to save a child drowning.
If you are eco hero, we're encouraging young people
to take the environment back form the elders
who are destroying it.
Well, doing that is doing a heroic deed.
Disability heroes, people
who are disabled themselves not only rise above the disability
but use it in a positive way
to improve the lives of other people.
So this is the kind of thing we're doing.
And the little research I'd like to present very quickly--
[ Pause ]
>> So this is a survey research using the techniques developed
at Stanford by the Knowledge Networks.
And essentially, what we did is a national probability sample
of 4,000 Americans and the way they set it up, this controls
for all possible variables.
So one out of five people we surveyed,
at least 4,800 qualify as heroes.
A hero is somebody who takes action on behalf of another
or in defense of a moral cause knowing there's a cause or risk.
See, altruism is heroism light as minimal risk.
Thirdly, it's-- you do it voluntarily and--
[ Inaudible Remark ]
>> Go ahead.
I'm sorry.
[ Foreign Language ]
>> And the hero does it not only voluntarily
but without expectation of a tangible reward.
You don t do it for the money, you do it for the virtue.
And so what we have discovered is
to be a hero you need certain opportunities.
So that if you live in an urban, you're much more likely
than if you live in a rural area and you're least likely
to be a hero if you live in a suburbs
because nothing bad happens in suburbs.
[Laughter] Education matters.
The more educated you are the more likely to be a hero.
And the reason is that education makes us aware,
sensitive to our surroundings, to other people.
The other thing that's amazing is volunteering matters.
One third of the people who are heroic also volunteered
significantly almost 60 hours a week.
And it goes both ways.
If you volunteer, you're more likely to become a hero.
But we also discovered once people are heroic then they're
more likely subsequently become a volunteer in their community.
Males are more likely to be heroes than females.
But in our sample, this is really military of--
people in the military.
When research ballots eagerly shows
that when you take away the physical courage part,
women are as likely or more likely to be heroes
because they are more likely to set up heroic networks.
The most amazing finding we have is that race matters.
[ Silence ]
[ Foreign Language ]
>> Blacks were 8 times more likely than whites have engaged
in heroic deed and Hispanics with 3--
2 times more likely than whites.
And we're exploring why, what is the cause of mechanism there.
Is that their more compassionate that having suffered
or being aware of suffering.
And I think most importantly for us is if you survive a disaster
or personal trauma then you are 3 times more likely
to be both a hero and a volunteer.
And we think that's where compassion comes in.
What does it mean to be hero?
In this sample 72 percent reported helping another person
in a dangerous emergency, 16 percent reported whistle blowing
on injustice, 6 percent reported sacrificing for a non-relative
or stranger, and 15 percent reported defying
unjust authority.
And the amazing thing is none
of these 800 were national media heroes.
They were really silent, modest, everyday humble people.
In our Heroic Imagination Project is trying
to amplify the voice of those quite heroes.
[ Inaudible Remark ]
>> Did you do the research only in one country?
>> We just started, and we only-- it's really good--
we just started America but we'd love to do it around the world.
>> Oh, that's good.
>> If we get the money.
[Laughter] If we get funding, we surely would like to replicate.
[ Laughter ]
>> Yes, that's a practical thing.
[ Laughter ]
>> Jim, where are you?
>> Your Holiness, Linda will be next.
>> It's nice to see you again.
You know I think that this is a great place
to start this question of heroism.
And on the way to heroism, we need to figure out how
to help people be able to engage in concern and caring
for others on a daily basis.
And how do we do that?
And I think my question for you is can we teach compassion.
And I think some of what we know about this suggests that yes,
there are some ways that we can help people develop compassion.
First of all, the way we learn initially is through modeling,
through what we see other people do.
You mentioned yesterday your mother as a model
of compassion and altruism.
And so to provide that for most people we need to think
about how to help parents and caregivers and teachers.
Learn how to be mindful of children, how to see them
as whole human beings, how to tune in to what their feeling,
what their thinking and be able to be caring and compassionate
so that the child experiences that first hand.
In the work we do with teachers here at Stanford,
we actually developed as consciously as we can
that mindfulness about the child.
I teach a course in child adolescent development.
And one of the things that students do is they--
I have a project where they look at the child
from all angles they talk to the child about what he's thinking
and experiencing and feeling.
They shadow the child in the school.
Follow him through his experience.
They visit the home.
They visit the community.
The sort of notion of beholding, that Arthur and I talked
about yesterday, really trying to understand and then be able
to empathize with and relate to and draw
out the experience of the child.
>> I think that's a foundation.
And then how do we teach children and young people
to be mindful of who they are and who other people are
and be able and working with other people
to take their feelings into consideration to be able
to take a step towards heroism in being able
to understand how their actions affect others
and how they can actually help others.
And there are wonderful curricula
that have been developed to develop the child socially
and emotionally that are being tried all over the country
in a variety of schools.
[Pause.] And in this teaching, children are taught
to be mindful what they're feeling, to make choices
about how to act on those feelings
that will be prosocial choices that are helpful
to others whether you're feeling anger or anxiety or competition,
all of those things you mention that cause us to behave badly
to one another quite often them because we're not reflective
about it and we haven't learned strategies to engage with others
in more productive ways and then there are set of activities
and exercises where children share with each other.
How does it feel when you have this experience?
How would some else feel?
What could you do to help some else feel less stress,
being more supported, even skills for resolving conflict.
And what we're finding
when school implement these strategies is
that not only do children become more secure in themselves,
more responsible for themselves,
but they become more socially responsible, they engage in some
of the activities that Phil was talking about earlier,
volunteerism, reaching out, resolving conflict,
and their academic achievement goes up.
And that's probably because when you get to experience life
as a whole person and you're not continually responding
to those anxieties and conflicts,
you can develop all the parts of yourself to a greater degree.
The third thing is that there are some schools
that are infusing this set of concerns in the life
of the school as a whole.
Some of those are schools
that explicitly attend a spiritual development
like Waldorf schools and others that have that mission.
But many are public schools that infuse community action
in the work that children do,
ways that they can have a good effect on the community,
taking up collections, engaging in educating people
in the community about health around other issues,
community service, expected and supported for children
so they become responsible,
and making social responsibility part of the expected learning.
So we have a little school that Stanford started for example
in East Palo Alto which is one of many schools that have habits
of mind and habits of heart as part of the expected development
of the child and they're actually given feedback
and graded in every class on their personal responsibility
and their social responsibility.
How are they making the life of the community better
in the responsibility that they take?
And when children have that experience over and over again
and it infuses the whole life of the school, they come to see
that as what it means to be in the world.
They come to think about it everyday.
It's not something that happens occasionally.
And when they graduate, they'll often reflect on the fact
that when I first started school,
I didn't understand what it meant to be responsible.
I didn't understand what meant to help others.
Now, I can show that I'm socially responsible in all
of these ways that I've developed
because the school is attending to it.
[ Inaudible Remark ]
>> Your Holiness.
[ Foreign Language ]
>> We'd like to spend a few minutes now in conversation.
And yesterday you spoke emphatically
about the importance of education.
Linda Darling Hammond is one
of America's foremost policy makers, you could say,
with regards to education.
If you were going to take one thing, select one thing
as a recommendation to her and to American education generally
as an advice, if you will, from you to us,
what would it be for education?
[ Foreign Language ]
>> Of course, it is much easier to see the faults
and difficult to find answer.
[Laughter] I don't know.
I don't know.
But I think you mentioned
that some school carry some special [inaudible] education
[foreign language].
[ Inaudible Remark ]
>> Social emotion on these things
and some school, not really are.
I think a Tibetan the--
[ Foreign Language ]
>> His Holiness, question is this,
I don't think he's referring to the SCL program in general
but the specific school in East Palo Alto that you gave
as an example that has this special program of habits
of mind and habits of body.
You gave the example of a boy who said
that when he graduated before he, you know, join the school,
he did not understand what responsibility meant.
So His Holiness's question is this,
has there been any research--
comparative research done on the effects
on the personal life and, you know, social relations
by graduate of this particular school versus other schools
that does not have that kind of program.
>> Well, there has been some research done generally
on schools like this, not this--
[ Foreign Language ]
>> For example like in field research,
he gave lot of statistics.
>> Right.
>> Statistical analysis.
[Laughter] So something like that would be quite naive.
>> So there was a metaanalysis of 200 schools that had put
in placed programs like this and they looked
at what happened overtime and they found
that there was a significant decline in violence
in those schools, significant increase is student's self
concept and feelings of worth in themselves, significant increase
in students engaging in prosocial volunteer
and other kinds of activities like that,
and an 11 percent increase in academic learning as well.
>> I think that's the proper way.
We can [inaudible] introduce-- [foreign language]
[ Inaudible Remark ]
>> Nationwide in-- [foreign language],
this certain new ideas
or new thing can not solve whole nation or something.
So first, few school as sort of experiment
of school by the project.
>> Like a pile of project, yeah.
>> Then after 5 years or 10 years, what differences,
then 100 school, 1000 school
and one state eventually can adapt using this new additional
[foreign language] like that, strictly the [inaudible],
secularly [inaudible] and then perhaps--
[ Foreign Language ]
>> So for example, some of my colleagues tell me
about the beneficial effects, you know, discovered as a result
of doing research on effects of mindfulness training.
So maybe in addition to SCL program,
some of those contemplative components could be added
as well and then again done some research.
>> Yeah, and in fact there are some schools that are doing both
of those together, where there's mindfulness training
and the broader curriculum.
And there are some very good evidence
that that both allow students to calm themselves,
to think more clearly, to work with troubling emotions, anxiety
and other things that get on the way, and anger that can come
up as well as then to move towards these more prosocial
outreach to other people.
And so we've got about a decade of research now
that reenforces the positive benefits of those.
And we're already a few thousand schools in to this kind
of curriculum across the country.
But it's not as well organized as it might be if we had,
you know, more general support for it.
And we need a view that children are more
than test scores which is a problem.
[ Applause ]
[ Foreign Language ]
>> I want to ask Linda a question.
Just His Holiness asked me,
is this research limited to the United States?
I said, "Yes, it is now."
Have any of these programs been transported to other countries,
especially countries like Israel or China or countries where,
you know, is either conflict or big population I think waiting
for this kind of programs.
>> I think that they-- some of these impulses
and strategies exist in other forms in some other countries
but not in exactly the same form as they've been developed here.
But there are schools in a number of places.
I was recently in Singapore
where there's a very explicit effort
to develop the spiritual side of children and their ability
to be engaged in these ways pro-socially as part of all
of the school activities.
And so in some places that's really infused
into the expectations for what school is about.
[ Foreign Language ]
>> Also the way of presentation, the value of compassion is,
of course, social engage--
[foreign language] one of emphasis is practice compassion,
brings inner peace that immense benefits to oneself.
>> Yes, absolutely.
>> That I think is-- every people--
every people, everybody is [inaudible] and it take care
about one's own-- [foreign language] well-being.
So the practice of compassion immediately brings inner
strength so that will reduce fear and with
that you can communicate with other people much easier.
The second your health improve, peace of mind,
as it brings your body element more nature balance.
Is it too much anger?
Too much serosity, fear these--
some scientists even told me literarily some kind
of [inaudible] eating our immune system.
>> Yes.
>> This maybe bad, social engagement--
[ Foreign Language ]
>> His Holiness is feeling is that perhaps sometimes
in the social, emotional learning curriculum emphasis may
have been more on one's responsibility towards others,
how to treat others.
But one component that could be added
on is actually the personal benefits
that the individual one's health gets from this kind
of prosocial, engaging in prosocial behavior
and being responsible for others
and being compassionate towards others.
So that impact has a much greater benefit
to one self as well.
It's not simply a question of how should one treat the other.
But in fact, it is in one's own interest that that kind
of behavior and the way of thinking should be cultivated.
That perhaps needs to be added.
>> And in fact, in a lot
of these cases you start with yourself.
You start with being mindful of yourself.
A lot of children live in very stressful environments
where they're besieged with things
that can create severe anxiety and just to learn
to calm oneself in a contemplative way to take note
of how to detach from some of that anxiety.
The feeling of love and kindness to oneself as well
as to others is absolutely essential,
really for the survival and then the further development
of children.
And when we ignore that we ignore
that at their peril and at our own peril.
>> Is it-- because sometimes there's some kind
of misunderstanding.
Showing compassion, love for other
that means this is sacrificing your self.
This is not-- This is not the case.
Actually the-- sorry, I often telling to people a part
of own experience the more sort of taken care about other,
the first benefit-- beneficial to oneself.
That's very clear.
>> Yeah, absolutely.
>> So that, I think is the important-- otherwise, the--
[ Foreign Language]
>> So again, because His Holiness is--
>> [Inaudible] between compassion, heroism and reaching
out to others it benefits you as well as others.
And that's why I think we need that link to inner peace
but also taking action and be happy about it.
>> That's right.
That's right.
>> So his point was that otherwise people may deep
down feel that yes, compassion maybe a wonderful virtue
but I need to take care of myself first.
[ Laughter ]
>> Thank you very much and I'm afraid I'm going to have
to draw this session to a close.
I hope you can all sense the energy around this topic.
But thank you both Phil and Linda
for your wonderful presentations.
We're going to make a kind
of fast shift here while our two presenters are going
to step off stage, three more will be joining us.
Let's thank them very much.
[ Applause ]
>> For more, please visit us at stanford.edu.