Welcome and Opening Remarks - Mind & Life Institute

Dialogue 39|Session 1

Overview

The 39th Mind & Life Dialogue, held in Dharamsala in 2025 under the theme “Minds, AI, and Ethics,” brought together scientists, philosophers, contemplatives, and educators to explore how artificial intelligence reshapes our understanding of consciousness, intelligence, and compassion. Opening remarks recalled His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s lifelong mission to bridge modern science with Buddhist wisdom, emphasizing that spiritual and scientific inquiry share a common goal: the wellbeing of all sentient beings. Thupten Jinpa reflected on nearly four decades of Mind & Life dialogues, highlighting their unique spirit of collective inquiry rather than monologue. He praised this gathering for addressing one of the most defining questions of our time: how humanity can coexist with AI while safeguarding wisdom and compassion. Amy Cohen Varela traced the philosophical roots of the dialogue to Francisco Varela’s enactive approach—seeing cognition as an embodied, relational process rather than mere information processing. She invited participants to imagine an ethics not as a rulebook, but as an emergent “ethical know-how.”

Dialogue 39
2 sessions
October 14, 2025
Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh, India
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Speakers

Amy Cohen Varela is Chairperson of the Mind & Life Europe Board as well as a clinical psychologist specializing in psychodynamic therapy and philosophy. Amy studied comparative literature at Brown and Columbia Universities before moving to Paris in the early '80s, where she received her degree in clinical psychology at Paris Diderot University.

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Thupten Jinpa, PhD, was trained as a monk at the Shartse College of Ganden Monastic University, South India, where he received the Geshe Lharam degree. In addition, Jinpa holds a bachelor’s honors degree in philosophy and a PhD in religious studies, both from Cambridge University. He taught at Ganden monastery and worked as a research fellow in Eastern religions at Girton College, Cambridge University. Jinpa has been the principal English translator to His Holiness the Dalai Lama since 1985 and has translated and edited numerous books by the Dalai Lama, including the New York Times best-sellers Ethics for the New Millennium and The Art of Happiness, as well as Beyond Religion, Universe in a Single Atom, and Transforming the Mind. His own publications include, in addition to numerous Tibetan works, Essential Mind Training; Wisdom of the Kadam Masters; Self, Reality, and Reason in Tibetan Philosophy: Tsongkhapa’s Quest for the Middle View; as well as translations of major Tibetan works featured in The Library of Tibetan Classics series. He is the main author of Compassion Cultivation Training (CCT), an eight-week formal program developed at the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (CCARE) at Stanford University. Jinpa is an adjunct professor on the faculty of religious studies at McGill University, Montreal; the founder and president of the Institute of Tibetan Classics, Montreal; and the general series editor of The Library of Tibetan Classics series. He has been a core member of the Mind & Life Institute from its inception. Jinpa lives in Montreal and is married with two daughters.

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