Khentrul Thokmeth Rinpoche + Gaëlle Desbordes

Can meditation change the world? Khentrul Thokmeth Rinpoche sits down with neuroscientist Gaëlle Desbordes to explore meditation’s potential effects on the brain and the planet.

Brainwave is supported in part by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

About the Speakers

Khentrul Thokmeth Rinpoche was born in Kheng Goling, Bhutan, in 1971 and was recognized by HH Dielgo Khentshe Rinpoche as the reincarnation of Geshe Rikzang Rinpoche. In his early twenties, Rinpoche studied at Tongsa Tsangkha Institute under the supervision of Lop Nurbu Wangchuk Rinpoche. The following ten years were spent in southern India at the Namdroling Monastery under the tutelage of HH Penor Rinpoche. After a three-year retreat, Penor Rinpoche instructed him to focus his attention on Taiwan, where he has since developed a sizeable following.

Gaëlle Desbordes is a research faculty instructor at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH)-Harvard-MIT Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging. There she investigates different types of meditation practices (e.g. mindful attention, compassion) from a neuroscientific perspective. Her main study is a clinical trial of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) for major depression. As a member of the Mindfulness Research Collaborative, she is part of a research program to study the impact of mindfulness training on self-regulation and adherence to medical regimen. Her work with David DeSteno and Paul Condon to investigate how meditation training increases compassion was published in the journal Psychological Science and has been featured in the New York Times and on WBUR.