Urban Mindfulness

Finding peace in the middle of it all.

Jonathan Kaplan, Ph.D., is the founder of Urban Mindfulness and the Director of the Stress Management Program at the American Institute for Cognitive Therapy in New York City. See full bio

May 8, 2009, Anxiety

Comments on "What the Dalai Lama Doesn't Know..."

What the Dalai Lama Doesn't Know...

By Jonathan Kaplan, Ph.D. on May 8, 2009 in Urban Mindfulness

Last week, I attended a 2-day conference on meditation and psychotherapy co-sponsored by Harvard Medical School. The theme of the conference was "Wisdom and Compassion", featuring the Dalai Lama as the main speaker. For six hours, he answered questions posed by prominent scientists and clinicians. Read More

The Dalai Lama

Submitted by Alex on May 8, 2009 - 7:47am.

Thank you for this post; it was nice to read.

I had the pleasure of seeing the Dalai Lama speak when he came to Canada two years ago, and he was the same way then. The format was more of a lecture, at the time, with a few questions posed, but the mix of playfulness and profound wisdom was to be seen throughout.

He truly is a wonderful person. And I fully agree with you that too few people these days are comfortable admitting that they don't know something. I don't know if it's just plain pride, or if it's something instilled by the school system (one of my teachers tried to change that by giving negative marks to questions if people just made up long drawn-out answers to hopefully touch on one or two points that might earn a mark). But it's definitely important.

I heard from a friend that one of the professors at his thesis defense asked a question he didn't know the answer to (turns out it was a trick question) just to see if he would make something up or admit that he didn't know.

In any case, thanks again for the post. I look forward to your next one!

Thanks!

Submitted by Jonathan Kaplan, Ph.D. on May 11, 2009 - 3:52am.

Hi Alex,

Thanks for your post. I am happy to hear about your experience of seeing the Dalai Lama, too.

Did your friend admit that he didn't know the answer during his defense? In my experience, such questions--especially from academics--are sadly just a prelude for them to tell you what they think on the matter. Hopefully, your friend passed!

Jon

I am in my first year of

Submitted by Beth on May 9, 2009 - 5:20am.

I am in my first year of graduate study in Clinical Psych and in one of my classes we studied the differences between Eastern and Western thought/def of Psych. I thought it was interesting that it came up in his lecture/forum.
As I have studied Buddhism for years I attended The Dalia Lama's teaching at Gillette Stadium last weekend. I thought it was very interesting. He was open with the crowd and and admitted he is still learning english so he used his interpreter when he needed to. I loved his personality playfulness and jokes. I learned much from the session and the following public talk. I can understand why he commended that it is more complex then 1 meditation b/c it is...I wish more people would admit when they do not know something rather than B.S. their way through and I think his personality is refreshing!
I look forward to reading part 2.

Thanks!

Submitted by Jonathan Kaplan, Ph.D. on May 11, 2009 - 3:58am.

Thanks, Beth. I hope that you enjoyed the talk. For an esteemed spiritual (and political) leader, the Dalai Lama sure does laugh and giggle a lot, huh? Somehow, he's found a way to make peace with the fact that life is often complicated and hard. Maybe there's something to this whole mindfulness thing after all...

Jon