0:00:00.742,0:00:04.573
So, we humans have

0:00:04.573,0:00:07.952
an extraordinary potential for goodness,

0:00:07.952,0:00:12.363
but also an immense power to do harm.

0:00:12.363,0:00:14.859
Any tool can be used

0:00:14.859,0:00:17.838
to build or to destroy.

0:00:18.036,0:00:21.217
That all depends on our motivation.

0:00:21.217,0:00:24.664
Therefore, it is all the more important

0:00:24.664,0:00:30.748
to foster an altruistic motivation[br]rather than a selfish one.

0:00:30.748,0:00:33.928
So now, we indeed are facing

0:00:33.928,0:00:36.993
many challenges in our times.

0:00:36.993,0:00:40.325
Those could be personal challenges.

0:00:40.325,0:00:44.481
Our own mind can be our best friend[br]or our worst enemy.

0:00:44.481,0:00:49.775
There's also societal challenges:

0:00:49.775,0:00:51.586
poverty in the midst of plenty,

0:00:51.586,0:00:54.964
inequalities, conflict, injustice.

0:00:54.964,0:00:59.120
And then there are the new challenges,[br]which we don't expect.

0:00:59.120,0:01:04.263
Ten thousand years ago, there was[br]about five million human beings on Earth.

0:01:04.263,0:01:08.233
Whatever they could do,[br]the Earth's resilience

0:01:08.233,0:01:11.089
will soon heal human activities.

0:01:11.089,0:01:13.775
After the Industrial[br]and Technological Revolutions,

0:01:13.775,0:01:16.178
that's not the same anymore.

0:01:16.178,0:01:20.473
We are now the major agent[br]of impact on our Earth.

0:01:20.473,0:01:25.187
We've entered the Anthropocene,[br]the era of human beings.

0:01:25.187,0:01:28.170
So in a way, if we were to say,

0:01:28.170,0:01:32.326
"we need to continue this endless growth,

0:01:32.326,0:01:35.786
endless use of material resources",

0:01:35.786,0:01:38.514
it's like saying if this man was saying,

0:01:38.514,0:01:43.866
and I heard the former heads of state,[br]I won't mention who, saying,

0:01:43.866,0:01:47.395
"Five years ago, we were at[br]the edge of the precipice.

0:01:47.395,0:01:49.972
Today we made a big step forward."

0:01:51.017,0:01:54.790
So this edge is the same

0:01:54.790,0:01:57.204
which have been defined by scientists

0:01:57.204,0:01:59.654
as the planetary boundaries,

0:01:59.654,0:02:03.705
and within those boundaries,[br]they can carry a number of factors.

0:02:03.705,0:02:09.231
We can still prosper, humanity can still[br]prosper for 150,000 years

0:02:09.231,0:02:12.563
if we keep the same stability of climate

0:02:12.563,0:02:15.721
as in the Holocene[br]for the last 10,000 years.

0:02:15.721,0:02:21.479
But this depends on choosing[br]a voluntary simplicity,

0:02:21.479,0:02:24.160
growing qualitatively, not quantitatively.

0:02:24.160,0:02:26.854
So in 1900, as you can see,

0:02:26.854,0:02:30.394
we were well within the limits of safety.

0:02:30.394,0:02:35.793
Now, in 1950 came the great acceleration.

0:02:35.793,0:02:39.542
Now hold your breath, not too long,

0:02:39.542,0:02:42.932
to imagine what comes next, now.

0:02:42.932,0:02:44.917
We have vastly overrun

0:02:44.917,0:02:47.355
some of the planetary boundaries.

0:02:47.355,0:02:49.631
Just to take biodiversity,

0:02:49.631,0:02:53.376
at the current rate, in 2050,

0:02:53.376,0:02:55.999
30 percent of all species on Earth

0:02:55.999,0:02:57.718
will have disappeared.

0:02:57.718,0:03:03.545
Even if we keep their DNA in some fridge,[br]that's not going to be reversible.

0:03:03.545,0:03:05.786
So here I am sitting in front

0:03:05.786,0:03:10.836
of a 7,000 meters high,[br]21,000 feet glacier in Bhutan.

0:03:10.836,0:03:17.987
The third pole, two thousand glaciers[br]are melting fast, faster than the Arctic.

0:03:17.987,0:03:21.934
So what can we do in that situation?

0:03:21.934,0:03:26.821
Well, however complex,

0:03:26.821,0:03:29.983
politically, economically, scientifically

0:03:29.983,0:03:32.131
the question of the environment is,

0:03:32.131,0:03:38.678
it simply boils down to a question[br]of altruism versus selfishness.

0:03:38.678,0:03:42.997
I'm a Marxist of the Groucho tendency.

0:03:42.997,0:03:43.972
(Laughter)

0:03:43.972,0:03:47.641
Groucho Marx said, "Why should I care[br]for future generations?

0:03:47.641,0:03:49.301
What did they do for me?"

0:03:49.301,0:03:50.997
(Laughter)

0:03:50.997,0:03:55.430
Unfortunately, I heard[br]the billionaire Steven Forbes,

0:03:55.430,0:03:58.158
on Fox News, saying exactly the same thing,

0:03:58.158,0:03:59.459
but seriously.

0:03:59.459,0:04:01.293
He was told about the rise of the ocean,

0:04:01.293,0:04:04.880
and he said, "I find it absurd[br]to change my behavior today

0:04:04.880,0:04:08.165
for something that will happen[br]in a hundred years."

0:04:08.165,0:04:10.593
So if you don't care[br]for future generations,

0:04:10.593,0:04:13.494
just go for it.

0:04:13.494,0:04:16.420
So one of the main challenges of our times

0:04:16.420,0:04:20.042
is to reconcile three time scales.

0:04:20.088,0:04:22.003
The short term of the economy,

0:04:22.003,0:04:26.125
the ups and downs of the stock market,[br]the end of the year accounts.

0:04:26.125,0:04:28.621
The midterm of the quality of life:

0:04:28.621,0:04:34.205
what is the quality every moment of[br]our life and over 10 years and 20 years?

0:04:34.205,0:04:37.734
And the long term of the environment.

0:04:37.734,0:04:39.823
When the environmentalists[br]speak with economists,

0:04:39.823,0:04:42.192
it's like a schizophrenic dialogue,[br]completely incoherent.

0:04:42.192,0:04:45.814
They don't speak the same language.

0:04:45.814,0:04:49.354
Now for the last 10 years,[br]I went around the world

0:04:49.354,0:04:53.452
meeting economists, scientists,[br]neuroscientists, environmentalists,

0:04:53.452,0:04:56.262
philosophers, thinkers, in the Himalayas,

0:04:56.262,0:04:57.910
all over the place.

0:04:57.910,0:05:01.834
It seems to be, there's only one concept

0:05:01.834,0:05:04.794
that can reconcile[br]those three time scales.

0:05:04.794,0:05:09.368
It is simply having more[br]consideration for others.

0:05:09.368,0:05:11.922
If you have more consideration for others,

0:05:11.922,0:05:14.569
you will be having a caring economics,

0:05:14.569,0:05:17.051
where finances are the service of society

0:05:17.051,0:05:20.719
and not society[br]at the service of finances.

0:05:20.719,0:05:23.447
You will not play at the casino[br]with the resources that people

0:05:23.447,0:05:25.583
have entrusted you with.

0:05:25.583,0:05:28.509
If you have more consideration for others,

0:05:28.509,0:05:31.806
you will make sure[br]that you remedy inequality,

0:05:31.806,0:05:35.346
that you bring some kind of well being[br]within the society,

0:05:35.346,0:05:38.806
in education, at the workplace.

0:05:38.806,0:05:41.279
Otherwise, a nation that is[br]the most powerful and the richest,

0:05:41.279,0:05:42.776
everyone is miserable.

0:05:42.776,0:05:44.146
What's the point?

0:05:44.146,0:05:46.363
And if you have more[br]consideration for others,

0:05:46.363,0:05:49.649
you are not going to ransack[br]that planet that we have

0:05:49.649,0:05:54.083
and that at the current rate, we don't[br]have three planets to continue that way.

0:05:54.083,0:05:56.556
So the question is,

0:05:56.556,0:06:00.387
okay, altruism is the answer,[br]it's not just a novel ideal,

0:06:00.387,0:06:04.021
but can it be a real, pragmatic solution?

0:06:04.021,0:06:06.649
And first of all, does it exist,

0:06:06.649,0:06:10.213
true altruism, or are we so selfish?

0:06:10.213,0:06:15.594
So some philosophers thought[br]we were irredeemably selfish.

0:06:15.594,0:06:21.195
You know, but are we really[br]all just like rascals?

0:06:21.195,0:06:23.819
That's good news, isn't it?

0:06:23.819,0:06:26.338
Many philosophers like Hobbes have said so.

0:06:26.338,0:06:30.099
But not everyone looks like a rascal,

0:06:30.099,0:06:32.572
or is man a wolf for man?

0:06:32.572,0:06:35.150
But this guy doesn't seem too bad.

0:06:35.150,0:06:38.493
He's one of my friends in Tibet.

0:06:38.493,0:06:40.652
He's very kind.

0:06:40.652,0:06:43.937
So now, we love cooperation.

0:06:43.937,0:06:47.265
There's no better joy than work together.

0:06:47.265,0:06:48.611
Isn't it?

0:06:48.611,0:06:52.350
And then not only humans.

0:06:52.350,0:06:54.837
Then, of course, there's[br]the struggle for life,

0:06:54.837,0:06:59.768
the survival of the fittest,[br]Social Darwinism.

0:06:59.768,0:07:05.015
But in evolution, cooperation,[br]though competition exists, of course.

0:07:05.015,0:07:08.382
Cooperation is much more creative

0:07:08.382,0:07:10.723
to go to increased level of complexity.

0:07:10.723,0:07:15.414
We are super cooperators and we [br]should even go further.

0:07:15.414,0:07:19.433
So now, on top of that,

0:07:19.433,0:07:21.697
the quality of human relationships,

0:07:21.697,0:07:24.065
you know, the OECD did a survey

0:07:24.065,0:07:25.958
among 10 factors,[br]including income, everything,

0:07:25.958,0:07:29.208
the first one that people said[br]that's the main thing for my happiness

0:07:29.208,0:07:32.621
is quality of social relationships.

0:07:32.621,0:07:35.908
Not only in humans.

0:07:35.908,0:07:38.844
And look at those great grandmothers.

0:07:38.844,0:07:41.386
So now,

0:07:41.386,0:07:44.590
this idea that we go deep within,

0:07:44.590,0:07:46.890
we are irredeemably selfish,

0:07:46.890,0:07:49.224
this is armchair science.

0:07:49.224,0:07:51.491
There is not a single sociological study,

0:07:51.491,0:07:54.737
psychological study,[br]that's ever shown that.

0:07:54.737,0:07:56.977
Rather, the opposite.

0:07:56.977,0:08:00.355
My friend [Daniel Batthson??][br]spent a whole life

0:08:00.355,0:08:03.118
putting people in the lab[br]in very complex situations,

0:08:03.118,0:08:05.637
and of course we are sometimes selfish

0:08:05.637,0:08:07.472
and some people more than others.

0:08:07.472,0:08:10.149
But he found that systematically,[br]no matter what,

0:08:10.149,0:08:13.149
there's a significant number of people

0:08:13.149,0:08:16.504
who do behave altruistically,[br]no matter what.

0:08:16.504,0:08:19.696
Now if you see someone[br]deeply wounded, great suffering,

0:08:19.696,0:08:22.958
you might just help[br]out of empathic distress.

0:08:22.958,0:08:24.688
You can't stand it,[br]so it's better to help

0:08:24.688,0:08:26.778
than keep on looking at that person.

0:08:26.778,0:08:28.484
So we tested all that, and in the end,

0:08:28.484,0:08:34.284
he said, "clearly people[br]can be altruistic", so that's good news.

0:08:34.284,0:08:39.896
And even further, we should look[br]at the banality of goodness.

0:08:39.896,0:08:41.730
Now look at here.

0:08:41.730,0:08:46.130
When we come out, we are going to say,[br]"That's so nice, there was no fistfight

0:08:46.130,0:08:49.067
while this mob[br]was thinking about altruism."

0:08:49.067,0:08:51.099
No, we expect that, isn't it?

0:08:51.099,0:08:54.848
If there was a fistfight,[br]we would speak of that for months.

0:08:54.848,0:08:58.029
So the banality of goodness is something[br]that doesn't attract your attention,

0:08:58.029,0:08:59.807
but it exists.

0:08:59.807,0:09:06.993
Now, look at this. Look at this.

0:09:08.107,0:09:09.663
Okay.

0:09:09.663,0:09:12.054
So some psychologists said,

0:09:12.054,0:09:15.031
when I tell them I run[br]140 humanitarian projects

0:09:15.031,0:09:17.875
in the Himalayas[br]that give me so much joy,

0:09:17.875,0:09:21.009
they said, "oh, I see,[br]you work for the warm glow."

0:09:21.009,0:09:24.063
That is not altruistic.[br]You just feel good.

0:09:24.063,0:09:26.991
You think this guy,[br]when he jumped in front of the train,

0:09:26.991,0:09:29.277
he thought, "I'm going to feel[br]so good when this is over?"

0:09:29.277,0:09:31.563
(Laughter).

0:09:31.563,0:09:33.849
But that's not the end of it.

0:09:33.849,0:09:36.391
They say, well, but when[br]you interviewed him, he said,

0:09:36.391,0:09:39.526
"I had no choice,[br]I had to jump, of course."

0:09:39.526,0:09:41.947
He has no choice. Automatic behavior.

0:09:41.947,0:09:44.652
It's neither selfish nor altruistic.

0:09:44.652,0:09:45.662
No choice.

0:09:45.662,0:09:47.624
Well, of course, this guy's[br]not going to think for half an hour,

0:09:47.624,0:09:49.841
should I give my hand, not give my hand?

0:09:49.841,0:09:54.056
He does it. There is a choice,[br]but it's obvious, it's immediate.

0:09:54.056,0:09:56.702
And then, also, here they have a choice.

0:09:56.702,0:10:01.080
So now, there are people who had choice,

0:10:01.080,0:10:03.258
like Pastor André Trocmé and his wife,

0:10:03.258,0:10:05.707
and the whole village[br]of Chambon-sur-Lignon in France.

0:10:05.707,0:10:09.225
For the whole Second World War,[br]they saved 3,500 Jews,

0:10:09.225,0:10:11.872
gave them shelter,[br]brought them to Switzerland,

0:10:11.872,0:10:15.517
against all odds, at the risk[br]of their lives and that of their family.

0:10:15.517,0:10:17.734
So altruism does exist.

0:10:17.734,0:10:19.279
So what is altruism?

0:10:19.279,0:10:23.121
It is the wish "may others be happy[br]and find the cause of happiness.

0:10:23.121,0:10:28.786
Now empathy is the effective resonance[br]or cognitive resonance that tells you,

0:10:28.786,0:10:31.537
this personality is joyful,[br]this person suffers.

0:10:31.537,0:10:34.463
But empathy enough is not sufficient.

0:10:34.463,0:10:36.686
If you keep on being[br]confronted with suffering,

0:10:36.686,0:10:39.447
you might have empathic distress, burnout,

0:10:39.447,0:10:43.977
so you need the greater sphere[br]of loving kindness.

0:10:43.977,0:10:46.324
With Daniel Singer at the[br][??] Institute of Leipzig,

0:10:46.324,0:10:48.797
we showed that the brain network

0:10:48.797,0:10:52.385
for empathy and loving kindness[br]are different.

0:10:52.385,0:10:54.416
Now, that's all well done,

0:10:54.416,0:11:00.000
so we got that from evolution,[br]from maternal care, parental love,

0:11:00.000,0:11:01.625
but we need to extend that.

0:11:01.625,0:11:04.968
Can we extend it to other species?

0:11:04.968,0:11:08.545
Now, if we want a more altruistic society,

0:11:08.545,0:11:10.855
we need two things:

0:11:10.855,0:11:12.932
individual change and societal change.

0:11:12.932,0:11:15.150
So is individual change possible?

0:11:15.150,0:11:18.539
Two thousand years[br]of contemplative study said yes, it is.

0:11:18.539,0:11:21.641
Now, 15 years of collaboration[br]with neuroscience and epigeneticists

0:11:21.641,0:11:26.435
said yes, our brains change[br]when you train in altruism.

0:11:26.435,0:11:30.707
So I spent 120 hours in an MRI machine.

0:11:30.707,0:11:33.773
This is the first time I went[br]after two and a half hours.

0:11:33.773,0:11:35.095
And then, the result

0:11:35.095,0:11:37.487
-- I've been published[br]in many scientific papers --

0:11:37.487,0:11:40.749
it shows without ambiguity[br]that there are structural change

0:11:40.749,0:11:42.432
and functional change in the brain

0:11:42.432,0:11:44.638
when you train the altruistic love.

0:11:44.638,0:11:46.252
Just to give you an idea:

0:11:46.252,0:11:49.073
this is the meditator at rest on the left,

0:11:49.073,0:11:52.776
meditation in compassion meditation,[br]you see all the activity,

0:11:52.776,0:11:54.890
and then the control group at rest,

0:11:54.890,0:11:57.512
nothing happened,[br]in meditation, nothing happened.

0:11:57.512,0:11:59.440
They have not been trained.

0:11:59.440,0:12:02.574
So, do you need 50,000[br]hours of meditation?

0:12:04.401,0:12:04.994
No, you don't.

0:12:05.407,0:12:05.657
Four weeks, 20 minutes a day,

0:12:05.657,0:12:07.838
of caring, mindfulness meditation

0:12:07.838,0:12:14.141
already brings a structural change[br]in the brain compared to a control group.

0:12:14.141,0:12:17.879
That's only 20 minutes a day[br]for four weeks.

0:12:17.879,0:12:20.967
Even with preschoolers,[br]we showed in Madison,

0:12:20.967,0:12:26.482
eight weeks program, gratitude,[br]loving kindness, cooperation,

0:12:26.482,0:12:28.583
mindful breathing, you would say,[br]"Oh, they're just preschoolers."

0:12:28.583,0:12:31.508
Look after eight weeks.

0:12:31.508,0:12:33.958
The pro-social behavior,[br]that's the blue line,

0:12:33.958,0:12:39.612
and then come the ultimate[br]scientific test, the stickers test.

0:12:39.612,0:12:43.350
Before, you determine for each child[br]who is their best friend in the class,

0:12:43.350,0:12:47.425
their least favorite child,[br]the unknown child, and the sick child,

0:12:47.425,0:12:50.129
and they have to give stickers away.

0:12:50.129,0:12:54.181
So before the intervention,[br]they give most of it to their best friend.

0:12:54.181,0:12:57.640
Four, five years old, 20 minutes,[br]three times a week.

0:12:57.640,0:13:01.123
After the intervention,[br]no more discrimination.

0:13:01.123,0:13:03.422
The same amount of stickers[br]to their best friend

0:13:03.422,0:13:05.488
and the least favorite child.

0:13:05.488,0:13:08.866
You know, that's something we should do[br]in all the schools in the world.

0:13:08.866,0:13:10.550
Now, where do we go from there?

0:13:10.550,0:13:14.998
(Applause)

0:13:14.998,0:13:17.529
When the Dalai Lama heard that,[br]his solution, he said,

0:13:17.529,0:13:20.965
"You go to 10 schools, 100 schools,[br]the U.N., the whole world."

0:13:20.965,0:13:22.649
So now where do we go from there?

0:13:22.649,0:13:24.762
Individual change is possible.

0:13:24.762,0:13:27.768
Now, do we have to wait[br]for an altruistic gene

0:13:27.768,0:13:29.951
to be in the human race?

0:13:29.951,0:13:33.132
That will take 50,000 years,[br]too much for the environment.

0:13:33.132,0:13:37.567
Fortunately, there is[br]the evolution of culture.

0:13:37.567,0:13:40.979
Cultures, as specialists have shown,

0:13:40.979,0:13:43.661
change faster than genes.

0:13:43.661,0:13:45.159
That's the good news.

0:13:45.159,0:13:48.189
Look at attitudes towards war[br]has dramatically changed over the years.

0:13:48.189,0:13:51.300
So now, individual change[br]and cultural change

0:13:51.300,0:13:54.132
mutually fashion each other,

0:13:54.132,0:13:56.756
and yes, we can achieve[br]a more altruistic society.

0:13:56.756,0:13:58.358
So where do we go from there?

0:13:58.358,0:14:00.517
Myself, I will go back to the East.

0:14:00.517,0:14:03.977
Now, we treat 100,000 patients[br]a year in our projects.

0:14:03.977,0:14:05.916
We have 25,000 kids in school,

0:14:05.916,0:14:07.773
four percent overhead.

0:14:07.773,0:14:09.921
Some people say, "Well,[br]your stuff works in practice,

0:14:09.921,0:14:12.185
but does it work in theory?"

0:14:12.185,0:14:15.807
So there's always the positive deviance.

0:14:15.807,0:14:19.266
So I will also go back to my hermitage[br]to find the inner resources

0:14:19.266,0:14:21.425
to better serve others.

0:14:21.425,0:14:24.362
But on the more global level,[br]what can we do?

0:14:24.362,0:14:26.823
We need three things.

0:14:26.823,0:14:28.635
Enhancing cooperation,

0:14:28.635,0:14:32.361
cooperative learning in the school[br]instead of competitive learning,

0:14:32.361,0:14:35.612
unconditional cooperation[br]within corporations.

0:14:35.612,0:14:40.209
There can be some competition[br]between corporations, but not within.

0:14:40.209,0:14:42.879
We need sustainable harmony.

0:14:42.879,0:14:44.411
I love this term.

0:14:44.411,0:14:46.524
Not sustainable growth anymore.

0:14:46.524,0:14:50.030
Sustainable harmony means now[br]we will reduce inequality.

0:14:50.030,0:14:53.826
In the future, we do more with less,

0:14:53.826,0:14:57.200
and we continue to grow qualitatively,

0:14:57.200,0:14:58.825
not quantitatively.

0:14:58.825,0:15:00.985
We need caring economics.

0:15:00.985,0:15:06.766
The old economics cannot deal[br]with poverty in the midst of plenty,

0:15:06.766,0:15:09.008
cannot deal with the problem[br]of the common goods

0:15:09.008,0:15:11.096
of the atmosphere, of the oceans.

0:15:11.096,0:15:12.779
We need a caring economics.

0:15:12.779,0:15:14.788
If you say economics[br]should be compassionate,

0:15:14.788,0:15:16.193
they say, "That's not our job."

0:15:16.193,0:15:19.838
But if you say they don't care,[br]that looks bad.

0:15:19.838,0:15:22.967
We need local commitment,[br]global responsibility.

0:15:22.967,0:15:28.307
We need to extend altruism[br]to the other 1.6 million other species,

0:15:28.307,0:15:31.732
sentient beings who are[br]co-citizens in this world.

0:15:31.732,0:15:35.064
and we need to dare altruism.

0:15:35.064,0:15:38.605
So long life to the altruistic revolution.

0:15:38.605,0:15:43.155
Viva la revolucion de altruismo.

0:15:43.155,0:15:51.665
(Applause)

0:15:51.665,0:15:53.116
Thank you.

0:15:53.116,0:15:54.688
(Applause)