Autism, Compassion, Theory of Mind and the Dalai Lama

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Hey everyone!

Has anyone of you read "Beyond Religion: Ethics for a Whole World"? This book (written by the Dalai Lama) offers a secular approach to ethics and happiness. In particular, he argues that compassion is the only thing that will give us lasting happiness and that everyone can become more compassionate, because we naturally have a lot of empathy for other humans and are born experts of theory of mind.

There seems to be a consensus that those with ASD lack theory of mind and thus have problems recognizing the feelings of NTs. I wonder whether the author is right in claiming that a lack of theory of mind and empathy leads to an inner imbalance that will show in agression (meltdowns?), unhappiness (depression?) and loneliness.

What do you think, could concentrating on our empathy and theory of mind - skills help with issues like meltdowns, depression and anxiety? I find the book's advice on how to improve these skills quite helpful.

I think I may have read an excerpt from that for a class once, though I don't recall what it was about, beyond that I agreed with it completely.

I'm a practicing Buddhist and mindfulness meditation helps me control my anxiety. my therapist even independently gave me a book on meditation because it's so helpful in anxiety disorders of the sort I have and in dealing with complications arising from being on the spectrum.

what do you mean by "lack theory of mind"? my aspergers manifests far more in the other ways (repetitive behavior, intense interests, sensitivity to sensory overloads, etc) than it does in lack of understanding NT feelings, so I've never really worried much about that.

I personally feel that Buddhist philosophy is beyond logical reproach and after systematically immersing myself in every religion I could, from Hasidic Judaism to Eastern Orthodoxy to Sufism to Santeria, and after being raised by evangelical clergy, I find Buddhism to be by far the best fit for me. Buddhist phenomenology and ethics and psychology is all demonstrably superior to anything in the West, and I hope one day to spend several years in in-depth study of Sanskrit and Tibetan and perhaps get an M.Div in Mahayana/Vajrayana Buddhism.

that said I'm somewhat neutral about the Dalai Lama. I'm much more interested in meditation experience and philosophy than I am in celebrity or authority figures, but I don't have anything against the man either.

The term empathy is pretty vague as it is. With the language and cultural barriers, it makes it even less certain what meaning he was trying to convey. The compassion part seems to be more solid. That is probably the more important part.

I am also a buddhist, and as a methodology it does help a lot with aspergers, but I practice Karma Kagyu (not Gelup as Dalai Lama) so I have not much feedback on that but that I agree also on the fact that I think Dalai Lama is more a political figure or celebrity. I have read 2 of his books and I find them kinda cliche format. Dont get me wrong I have nothing against him, I think his books are fine, and as a basic approach for buddhism in daily life they are fine. But if you are looking for a deeper view, and better view of those concepts, you should attend any type of buddhist meditation session and check it on your own. I know my comment has maybe nothing to do with what you asked.. but As for the lacking of theory of mind I dont understand what you mean, could you clarify? english is not my first language so it takes me a while some time to get things, thanks.