Article: Opening the Doors to the Self – Relationships

By Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.

Recently I heard an interview on National Public Radio’s program Fresh Air, with the Dalai Lama’s official translator. The interviewer, Terry Gross, asked him if there were ever Western concepts he had trouble translating into Tibetan. The translator said the hardest concept he had ever tried to convey emerged from a conference on Buddhism and psychology held in the United States. He had enormous difficulty trying to translate the words which described the concept of self-loathing. It took him almost half an hour to find the words to help the Dalai Lama understand this concept.