The Dalai Lama created a minor splash in the news yesterday when he announce he is donating $50,000 from his personal trust to help fund kindness research at the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The Center will use the funds to continue its exploration “into how healthy qualities of mind such as kindness, empathy and compassion develop and might be nurtured.”

Pretty interesting. If you take a look around you, I’m sure you’ll agree that not everyone is kind. Or at least that some people are kinder than others. Maybe it’s genes, maybe it’s upbringing. But maybe, kindness can be taught.