Dan Harris and Thupten Jinpa on the Miracle of Mindful Meditation

NEW YORK, February 15, 2018 —ABC News Anchor Dan Harris and Tibetan scholar and long-time English translator for the Dalai Lama Dr. Thupten Jinpa speak about mindful meditation and its growing popularity in the United States. (1 hr., 17 min.)

Mindful meditation is, for many, an essential component of a healthy and balanced lifestyle. It has also been shown to bring health-related benefits, such as combating stress, high blood pressure, even boosting the immune system and mitigating depression. Not surprisingly, huge numbers of Americans are now practitioners and devotees of meditation mindfulness.

In support of the Asia Society’s "Buddhism and Beyond" season, the Asia Society brings to its stage two individuals supremely qualified to speak about mindful meditation, and its growing popularity in this country. Dr. Thupten Jinpa is one of the world’s most highly respected scholars of Tibetan Buddhism, who has served as the long-time English translator for the writings of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. He is a widely-read author, philosopher, a former monk, and self-professed "student of consciousness". Dan Harris is an ABC News Anchor and Correspondent and author of the critically acclaimed book 10% Happier which tells the story of his own personal journey from high anxiety to a life enriched by mindful meditation. Harris suffered a panic attack on national television, and while he says he was "a lifelong non-believer" in the power of meditation, he knew he needed to make changes in his life. His journey took him to a disgraced pastor, a mysterious self-help guru, and a gaggle of brain scientists before realizing that his troubles could be traced to what he had considered his greatest asset: the incessant voice in his head, which had helped him in the world of television news, but hurt him in other ways. Today Harris is a practitioner, author, podcast producer, and vocal proponent of the powers of mindful meditation.

How to rewire a hyperactive brain? What can the teachings of the Buddha do to change a New York life? What does "mindful meditation" really mean – and what does it require? Join us as we tackle those and other questions, with Dr. Thupten Jinpa and Dan Harris.

Dan Harris is an anchor and correspondent for ABC News. He is co-anchor for 'Nightline' and the weekend edition of ‘Good Morning America’. He has been honored several times for his journalism, including an Edward. R Murrow Award and two Emmy Awards for international reporting that aired on 'Nightline'. His acclaimed book 10% Happier was a best-seller. His latest work is Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics.

Dr. Thupten Jinpa is President of the Institute of the Tibetan Classics in Montreal, Canada. Since 1985 he has been a principal English translator to His Holiness the Dalai Lama and has traveled extensively in this capacity. He has translated more than a dozen books for the Dalai Lama including Ethics for the New Millennium, Transforming the Mind and Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality. Among his own works, he has written the critically acclaimed book, A Fearless Heart: How the Courage to Be Compassionate Can Transform Our Lives. He also serves as Visiting Research Scholar at the Stanford Institute for Neuro-Innovation and Translational Neurosciences, as well as Adjunct Professor of Tibetan Buddhist Philosophy at McGill University.

*Please note this program will be recorded for broadcast use by ABC News*