Attention, Emotion Regulation and Learning - Mind & Life Institute

Dialogue 19|Session 4

Overview

The discussion explores how neuroscience, developmental psychology, and contemplative traditions can inform education by strengthening attention, emotion regulation, compassion, and learning. Richard Davidson explains that the brain is highly plastic and can change through experience and practice, with evidence suggesting that training in mindfulness, meditation, and compassion can improve emotional regulation, attention consistency, cooperation, and possibly brain function, especially during childhood and adolescence when development is still underway. Other speakers emphasize that secure, caring relationships with parents and teachers reduce anxiety and support learning, while social-emotional education can improve both behavior and academic achievement. The panel also highlights adolescence as a particularly important period of both vulnerability and opportunity, when strong emotions and developing self-control can lead either toward harmful behavior or toward ideals, compassion, and purposeful action. Throughout the conversation, the Dalai Lama stresses that intellectual training alone is neutral and must be guided by motivation, reasoning, compassion, and repeated practice, while educators discuss practical approaches such as emotional literacy, mindfulness, breathing exercises, yoga, encouragement, and strong teacher-student relationships. Overall, the session argues that education should intentionally cultivate the whole child by combining academic development with emotional skills, attention, caring relationships, and compassion, while continuing to scientifically test which approaches work best for different children and developmental stages.

Dialogue 19
7 sessions
October 8, 2009
DAR Constitution Hall, Washington, DC, USA
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Speakers

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Tenzin Gyatso, the14th Dalai Lama, is the leader of Tibetan Buddhism and a spiritual leader revered worldwide. He was born on July 6, 1935, in a small village called Taktser in northeastern Tibet. Born to a peasant family, he was recognized at the age of two, in accordance with Tibetan tradition, as the reincarnation of his predecessor, the 13th Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lamas are manifestations of the Buddha of Compassion, who choose to reincarnate for the purpose of serving human beings. Winner of the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1989, he is universally respected as a spokesman for the compassionate and peaceful resolution of human conflict. He has traveled extensively, speaking on subjects including universal responsibility, love, compassion and kindness. Less well known is his intense personal interest in the sciences; he has said that if he were not a monk, he would have liked to be an engineer. As a youth in Lhasa it was he who was called on to fix broken machinery in the Potala Palace, be it a clock or a car. He has a vigorous interest in learning the newest developments in science, and brings to bear both a voice for the humanistic implications of the findings, and a high degree of intuitive methodological sophistication.

Bio dialogues

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Richard J. Davidson, PhD, is the founder and chairman of the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds at the Waisman Center, and the director of the Laboratory for Affective Neuroscience and the Waisman Laboratory for Brain Imaging and Behavior, both at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He was educated at New York University and Harvard University, where he received his bachelor’s of arts and PhD degrees, respectively, in psychology. Over the course of his research career, he has focused on the relationship between brain and emotion. He is currently the William James professor and Vilas research professor of psychology and psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin. He is co-author or editor of 13 books, including Visions of Compassion: Western Scientists and Tibetan Buddhists Examine Human Nature, The Handbook of Affective Science, and The Emotional Life of Your Brain. Davidson has published more than 300 chapters and journal articles, and is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards for his work, including the Research Scientist Award from the National Institute of Mental Health, the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award from the American Psychological Association, and election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has served on the board of directors for the Mind & Life Institute since 1992. In 2006, Time named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world, and he received the first Mani Bhaumik Award from UCLA for advances in the understanding of the role of the brain and the conscious mind in healing.

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