Yoga and Mental Health

HIS HOLINESS the 14th DALAI LAMA met with UNESCO Artist for Peace, Dr. GUILA CLARA KESSOUS, on May 8, 2023. Evoking her commitments to UNESCO, Dr. Kessous asked about issues such as equality and women’s rights, intercultural dialogue, the societal role of art and the importance of yoga for mental health. Here is an excerpt from the conversation.

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GCK: Your Holiness, do you think yoga has a real role to play in addressing the mental health and psychological suffering felt by so many people on the planet right now?

HHDL: Yes, I do. Yoga, which is an art of discipline, has its place in responding to the complexity of our world. If I make a gesture, I go beyond my intellect, which makes me suffer, by concentrating on that gesture. If this gesture is followed by ten people, not only do those people go beyond their intellect, but they each release an awareness of belonging to a whole, to a collective gesture. This is the genius of yoga. We think it’s gesture, but it’s humanity.

GCK: In your book, New Reality: A Manifesto of Collective Responsibility, co-written with the remarkable Sofia Stril-Rever, you describe yoga as a kind of new language that would enable us all to communicate differently, to transcend our physical and mental boundaries. How can we achieve this degree of understanding, of "interdependency," as you like to call it?