During the recent preparatory meeting for the Mind and Life Institute's conference on ‟Altruism and Compassion in Economics” (to be held in Zurich in April, see www.compassionineconomics.org), I had the chance to spend time with Daniel Batson, an eminent American psychologist, whom I had wanted to meet for many years. Daniel Batson can b...

Imagine a ship that is sinking and needs all the available power to run the pumps to drain out the rising waters. The first-class passengers refuse to cooperate because they feel hot and want to use the air-conditioner and other electrical appliances. The second-class passengers spend all their time trying to be upgraded to first-class status...

Recently, while preparing the ‟Mind and Life Institute” meeting that will be held next April (www.compassionineconomics.org), I had the opportunity to speak with the participants who will take part in this conference, including Ernst Fehr, the renowned Swiss economist. For classical economists, ‟the first principle of Economics is that every ...

This image was taken during late afternoon, in Nepal, this fall. To balance the sky and the earth, and restore why the human eye sees (but what the captor does not register because of the limitation of it's contrast range), I have used a graded neutral density filter of 3 stops (Singh Ray-Galen Rowell 3G). To do so, it is best to set the ...

Leonardo da Vinci wrote in his notebooks: ‟The time will come when people like me will think of the murder of an animal just as they think today of the murder of a man.” And George Bernard Shaw said, ‟Animals are my friends, and I don't eat my friends.” It's not a matter of denying that there are differences in intelligence between animals an...

Recently during the course of only one day I heard these facts about the environment: 1) The Greenland glaciers are melting much faster than previously thought. This is because of the cumulated effects of the melting ice and the acceleration of the movement of the glaciers toward the sea. We know that the complete melting of the Greenland ...

For many years I used Nikon FM2 cameras, with fixed focus lenses, adjusting the settings manually. However, four years ago I started making use of the wonderful possibilities of high range digital cameras such as the Canon Ds Mark III, and the excellent zoom lenses of this same brand. Because the digital system is so versatile, it is possible...

During the last few years, there has been dramatic changes in the Himalayan glaciers. These two photographs of the Langtang Range were taken from the same place, the first one at the end of September 2006, and the second one in October 2009. These changes are related to reduced yearly snowfalls, combined with the accelerated melting of the gl...

An authentic spiritual path implies making great demands of oneself, but being very tolerant towards others. In most sects, however, people are very demanding of others, but flagrantly contravene the ideals they profess themselves. It only needs one person with a little bit of charisma who decides to exploit his or her influence, for people t...

Meditation essentially means to train the mind. The purpose of meditation is to develop qualities such as loving-kindness and attention, as well as a correct understanding of reality. For 2500 years, Buddhists have used meditation to eliminate ignorance and mental toxins, that is to say destructive emotions, which are the principal causes of ...