Emotional Awareness

May 26, 2008
This edited transcription of 39 hours of dialogue between the Dalai Lama and renowned psychologist Ekman addresses issues ranging from the importance of mindfulness, the evolutionary function of moods, meditative breathing and the cultivation of compassion. Ekman and the Dalai Lama are articulate, deeply serious scholars, and their investigations into “the varieties of anger,” the destructive potential of contempt and the power of forgiveness contain a wealth of fascinating insights; unfortunately, their musings would have benefited from more scrupulous editing—their pronouncements lie buried beneath conversational meandering and tangential discussions. The Dalai Lama's humor and curiosity do translate well, however, and do much in enlivening the unfocused text; he and Ekman delight in playfully invoking everything from traditional Buddhist thought to Western philosophy, Darwin, communism and personal anecdotes in a single breath. It's an intellectual treat readers will enjoy—if they can put up with the rambling transcript.

July 15, 2008
Another title from, or more properly, created around, the beloved Dalai Lama, this book represents a kind of convergence of differing but not perhaps inherently contradictory worlds: that of Tibetan Buddhism and that of the science of the observation of human emotions, as represented by Ekman ("Emotions Revealed"), an expert on Charles Darwin's still-underrated work on the expressions of the emotions in humans and animals. Their conversations touch on questions of emotional balance, anger, and the range and limits of compassion, but a brief review can hardly do justice to the range and depth of this fine book, which ought to draw not only the Dalai Lama's considerable readership but also those attracted to scientific approaches to Buddhistic thought.

Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.