Barry Kerzin

Barry Kerzin
Born	Barry Michael Kerzin November 1, 1947 Hollywood, USA
Nationality	American
Citizenship	United States of America
Education	University of California at Berkeley (BA Philosophy) and University of Southern California (MD)
Occupation	Teacher, physician, and Buddhist monk
Known for	Medical doctor to the Dalai Lama and teacher at the interface of Buddhism and medicine
Medical career
Institutions	Private practice (Ventura County, California) University of Washington School of Medicine (Assistant Professor) Private practice (charitable, Dharamsala India) Human Values Institute (Japan) Altruism in Medicine Institute (USA) University of Hong Kong (Honorary)

Barry Michael Kerzin, M.D., (born November 1, 1947) is an American physician and Buddhist monk. He has lived in Dharamsala since 1988 and serves as a personal physician to the 14th Dalai Lama, along with treating people in the local community, free of charge. Following his ordination as a monk by the Dalai Lama in the mid-2000s, he has travelled widely, teaching and offering workshops in which he blends Buddhist teaching and his medical training, emphasizing the spiritual and health benefits of meditation and compassion. He has served as a research subject in neuroscience research into the effects of meditation on the brain.

Early life and education

Kerzin was born in Hollywood, California on November 1, 1947.^[1][2] When he was young he read a book by D.T. Suzuki's World of Zen, which sparked an interest in Buddhism.^[3] Starting at around six, he was plagued by questions of who he was and why he was here; they led him to join a philosophy club in high school and to switch to studying philosophy in college; he had started as a pre-med student.^[4] He had wanted to become a doctor and did choose to continue on to medical school, because at the age of eleven he had a brain abscess that caused him to have seizures and fall into comas; it was eventually treated by a neurosurgeon with four brain surgeries over several years; the experience inspired him to become a doctor so that he could help other people.^[3]

Kerzin received BA in Philosophy from the University of California at Berkeley and in 1976 he received an MD degree from the University of Southern California.^[5][6]

Career

Kerzin did his residency at Ventura County Medical Center and practiced family medicine in Ojai, California for seven years.^[1] His mother had died when he was 27, and just after he started working in Ojai, his wife was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. She died in 1983 and they had no children.^[1]

He travelled in India, Sri Lanka, and Nepal for nearly a year, visiting various lamas.^[7]

He then obtained an appointment as an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine from late 1985 to early 1989.^[1][8]

In the mid-1980s, B. Alan Wallace and the Dharma Friendship Foundation coaxed a lama from Dharamsala, Gen Lamrimpa, to come to Seattle for two years, and Kerzin served as his driver.^[9] In 1988 Gen Lamrimpa returned to India and Kerzin accompanied him, intending to take a six-month leave of absence from the University of Washington.^[10] He stayed in Dharamsala when his leave ended, and began practicing medicine there for the local people, the Dalai Lama and other Tibetan lamas.^[1][5][6] He also began studying Buddhism and meditation intensively, and 19 years after he moved there (in the mid-2000s), he was ordained a Buddhist monk by the Dalai Lama.^[1][6] Throughout his career Kerzin has maintained his board certification with the American Board of Family Medicine.^[6]

After his ordination, he began traveling and teaching about the interface between modern medical science and Buddhist psychology and philosophy, with particular reference to altruism in medicine and secular ethics as well as compassion, wisdom, meditation, death and dying and emotional hygiene; he has also participated in neuroscience research on the effect of meditation on the brain.^[3][6]

Kerzin meditating with EEG for neuroscience research

In the mid-2000s he served as a research subject in neuroscience research into the effects of meditation on the brain led by Richard J Davidson at the University of Wisconsin.^[11]

Kerzin founded the Human Values Institute in Japan in 2010 after visiting there regularly starting in 2007; he serves as chairman of the organization.^[12] The institute publishes books and instructional movies, gives lectures, leads workshops and meditation retreats, holds an annual symposium in Tokyo, and leads pilgrimages on the island of Shikoku; the education focuses on healthy physical and emotional living and handling death compassionately.^[12] He taught about the Heart Sutra at the Gokokuji Temple in Tokyo shortly after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.^[13]

He participated in a 2011 weeklong workshop organized by scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig, exploring the role compassion training has in changing human behavior and emotions.^[14] The workshop led to a documentary film and a multimedia book to which Kerzin contributed two chapters.^[15]

In 2013, Kerzin founded the Altruism in Medicine Institute in the US.^[16]

He had a visiting professorship at the Central University of Tibetan Studies, Varanasi, India in 2006.^[17] At the University of Hong Kong he was appointed 'Visiting Professor of Medicine' for 2014 and 2015 and was made an Honorary Professor at the university's Centre of Buddhist Studies in March 2015.^[17] Kerzin is a fellow of the Mind & Life Institute,^[18] which was initiated in 1985 to foster a dialogue between Buddhist scholars and Western scientists.^[19][20]

Works

• Publications: Kerzin is the author of The Tibetan Buddhist Prescription for Happiness^[21] published in Japanese and being translated into English and Chinese, and various book chapters.
• TEDx Talks: He delivered a TEDx talk, on Happiness in 2010^[22] and one in 2014 on Compassion and Anger Management^[23]
• Documentaries: Prof Kerzin was featured on the 2006 U.S. Public Broadcasting Service documentary entitled The New Medicine.^[24] This TV documentary received a largely negative review in the Wall Street Journal,^[25] but a more positive one appeared in the New York Times.^[26]
• Kerzin also featured in October 2015 in a PBS Newshour documentary "Dalai Lama’s American doctor wants more compassion in medicine"

External links

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• Flickr

References