Host Elizabeth Renieris is joined by the Venerable Tenzin Priyadarshi, founding president and CEO of The Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The center is a collaborative and nonpartisan think tank focusing on the development of interdisciplinary research and programs in a variety of fields, from science and technology to education and international relations.

A Buddhist monk, Venerable Tenzin gave us a primer on Buddhist ethics generally and what they mean in the context of technology specifically. This included a discussion of our increasingly virtual lives during COVID as well as a principle he calls “ethics by design.” He and Elizabeth also talked about how he would apply Buddhist ethical framing to case studies involving technology in the automotive, healthcare, and defense industries.

More About Our Guest

Venerable Tenzin entered a Buddhist monastery at the age of 10, studying traditional Indo-Tibetan and Japanese Buddhism. He was ordained by His Holiness The Dalai Lama, who is his spiritual mentor.

In addition to his current role leading The Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values, Venerable Tenzin has served as director of the ethics initiative at the MIT Media Lab and as a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. He is also the founding director and president of the Prajnopaya Institute and Foundation, a worldwide humanitarian organization that provides care for all regardless of ethnicity, religion, or gender by developing innovative health, education, and social welfare programs.

Venerable Tenzin is a graduate of Harvard University, which in 2013 recognized him with a Distinguished Alumni Award for his visionary contributions to humanity.

Links

• The Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values
• Episode Transcript