Destructive Emotions: A Scientific Dialogue with the Dalai Lama

Basically a book-length report from another Mind and Life conference, where Goleman, the Dalai Lama, and some philosophers, Buddhist scholars, and western brain/mind scientists got together for a series of talks and discussions, examining areas where Buddhism could learn from science and vice versa. There was an overriding effort to be practical and constructive – no easy thing when so many of the topics prompted conceptual and semantic conflict, not just between east and west but within disciplines.

The book is a fair bit longer and more detailed than the last Mind and Life report I read (Gentle Bridges); the narration includes background goings-on, assorted sidetracks, and more extensive reports from the afternoon discussions. The show more conference focused on craving, anger and delusion: their origins, natures and effects, whether and how they can ever be beneficial, and what people can do about them. (Goleman plays up his friend Paul Ekman's personal demons – a temper related to father issues – a bit heavy-handedly, maybe for dramatic effect.) show less

This is not an easy read. This is not the kind of material that I breezed through and I've found that while the rational and logical aspects kept me rooted, some realizations along the way were pretty painful. I read this with a journal next to me. And I'm not finished reading it yet. The book offers a lot of self-reflection and one of the most poignant takeaways I received from this is how the Dalai Lama had to take a break during one seminar when he learned that Westerners hated themselves. He never thought that anyone can be capable of that.

I can read this over and over again, but in different phases of my life. Really grateful for this book.

Re-reading - the audiobook narrator feels a bit deadpan, but the book is still worth the re-read.

2nd read through: good lessons and ideas. Particularly interesting to an atheist.

Listened to audiobook. Found this to be a fascinating account of how "Western" science can now measure the cost of destructive emotions on human life and how Buddhist traditions, along with other religious traditions, have developed considerable practice and techniques for reducing the experience of destructive emotions in one's life. In particular, brain scans of an advanced buddhist monk provided astounding evidence of bodily functions responding to a variety of meditative states. The book is a fairly detailed account of a multi-day conference of presentations by Western academics and response by the Dalai Lama and fellow Buddhist practiioners.

Good synthesis of East and West...

Libro che illustra la possibilità di vivere meglio imparando a gestire le proprie emozioni negative, controllandole. Migliorando di conseguenza anche la realtà esterna influenzando chi sta intorno a noi, un pò come una macchia d'olio che si allarga.

La cosa che più mi piace è la dimostrazione dell'effettiva utilità del dialogo tra filosofia buddista e scienza. Ciò dimostra che spiritualità e scienza sono parti complementarie e non antagoniste, come invece si tende ancora a credere spesso e volentieri a casa nostra.

Ciò che mi è piaciuto un pò meno, e che mi ha spinto a dare solo tre stelle al libro, sono state alcune parti un pò troppo tecniche. Ma avendo già letto un altro libro di Goleman che presentava le medesime show more difficoltà (Intelligenza Emotiva) sapevo che sarebbe stato utile leggere anche questo. Soprattutto grazie all'apporto di una filosofia di vita dalla quale ho davvero tanto da imparare. show less

> Babelio : https://www.babelio.com/livres/Goleman-Surmonter-les-emotions-destructrices--Un-...

> SURMONTER LES ÉMOTIONS DESTRUCTRICES, de Daniel Goleman - Éd. Robert Laffont. — À la fois journal de bord, traité de psychologie, manuel de sagesse et reportage scientifique, ce livre inclassable se lit aussi comme un roman. Une passionnante saga qui raconte plusieurs années de rencontres entre des psychologues, des neurologues, des philosophes occidentaux - dont le Français Francisco Varela, disparu depuis - et plusieurs éminents bouddhistes - dont le Dalaï Lama. Objectif : essayer de comprendre pourquoi même des individus normaux, apparemment raisonnables, sont mus, en leur for intérieur, par des émotions négatives, parfois show more archi-violentes, qui rongent l’humanité et nous menacent tous d’anéantissement. Cette saga commence par un voyage de Daniel Goleman, l’auteur fameux de L’Intelligence émotionnelle, à Dharamsala, la ville indienne où siège le gouvernement tibétain en exil. Il y découvre stupéfait que sa spécialité de "thérapeute des émotions” prolonge en fait des millénaires de réflexion bouddhiste sur le sujet - un sujet en plein boum, depuis quelques années, en neuro- et en psychosciences. À partir de là, se met en place une série de rencontres passionnantes, que Goleman relate comme une énorme enquête collective qui, au fil des mois, va tracer une sorte de formidable voie d’espérance hors du chaos. (Patrice van EERSEL)
—Nouvelles Clés show less