Aaron T. Beck Meets the Dalai Lama

Categories: AT Beck, Buddhism, CBT

On June 13, 2005, an historical conversation took place. The founder of Cognitive Therapy, Aaron T. Beck, and the 14th Dalai Lama had a “meeting of the minds” at an international congress for cognitive psychotherapy in Göteborg, Sweden.

Later, Dr. Beck reflected on that meeting and summarized some of the highlights of their discussion, including the similarities between Cognitive Therapy and Buddhism regarding the mind, thinking, common assumptions and change. The Dalai Lama referred to cognitive practices as Analytical Meditation and stated that Dr. Beck’s book Prisoners of Hate was almost like Buddhist literature.

This video clip is  2 minutes 47 seconds in length. By clicking on the photo, you will be directed to vimeo to watch the video.