the colors, the tibetan colony in india. mindfulness, meditation and even into happiness and the impact all of that can have on our physical health. and the champion of this cause is none other than than the dalai lama himself.

13,000 tibetan monks in exile live here and this particular monastery is now celebrating its 600th anniversary. there's also this air of anticipation as a very special guest is set to make an the dalai lama h been the spiritual and political leaders. the nobel peace prize winner is here for a meeting of minds between scientists and buddhist monks. it's called the emery tibet partnership that started in atlanta nearly 20 years ago. right from the start, the dalai lama puts everyone at ease with his classic smile, his candy and a white washcloth on his head to cool him down. and then we had the honor of sitting down with him ourselves, one on one.

you taught me yesterday to have a genuine smile. you said, you should smile genuinely, right? >> right. we are social animal. we need friend. in order to develop genuine friendship, trust, very important. for trust, if you show them genuine sort of respect, genuine love, then trust come. so here, i think that the expression of genuine freely smile, part of that. that is genuine smile. >> the dalai lama smiles and laughs a lot and there's something to that. research shows that laughing doesn't just signal happiness, it produces it. in the presence of his holiness,

you can't help yourself. >> when you smile, i notice everyone around you smiles. it's very contagious as well. what keeps you happy? with so much that's going on in the world, how do you maintain your happiness and your optimism? >> your own attitude, truthful. and then try to service to others. some scientists say basic human nature is compassionate. and then also say the medical scientist and they also say, constant anger is very bad. try to keep compassion and then surrounded by compassionate people, health much better. >> the dalai lama believes we can practice compassion through education and training. studies show compassion benefits our health by altering the brain networks associated with

emotion, attention, and empathy. compassion meditators show less anger and focus more on problem solving. buddhist monks dedicate lives to practicing compassion and mindfulness meditation, an ancient concept focusing on presence of mind and paying attention to the present moment free of judgment. while the buddhists are experts on mindfulness meditation, it's the science that the dalai lama wants to hone in on. he's been speaking with modern scientists for decades. and at the core of his partnership is the development of a science curriculum for monks to study. and that means changing the existing monastic curriculum, something that hasn't been done in more than 500 years. professor ari is helping develop the biology curriculum. >> how ironic the dalai lama is more open to science than many scientists are more open to spirituality or religion. science is supposed to be the

great open minded test everything, we'll test anything place, right? i think we can learn from the dalai lama and learn from the monks, how do you hold science and medicine together, the best of science and medicine together with the best of religion, which is what the dalai lama talks about. love, compassion. what all religions preach. how can you bring those in an effective way? >> i think a completely new language. much of the scientific words don't exist in tibetan so they work to update the vocabulary and there are tibetan words that get lost in translation. for example, mind in english does not have an exact equivalent in tibetan. there are multiple words to

capture mind and consciousness and depends on the context. in some ways, maybe that's not surprising. english speaking western countries typically place less emphasis object science of our emotions like compassion and that's what buddhism is teaching science. >> what can science learn from buddhism? >> when they heard the explanation quite detailed, the system of our emotion. and also, these emotion. many scientists really show an interest. so obviously, therefore, they can take some new outlook into our inner world. >> the exchange of our information is not only

happening here in india but halfway around the world at emory university. >> i'll try my best to say bacteria and solution. >> and the dalai lama extends an incredibly special invitation. we experience something rarely ever seen on camera.

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is a very special group of students to be sitting in a science lab. six buddhist monks part of the emory tibet science initiative have been studying here in atlanta, georgia, for a year and a half. they have taken classes in astronomy, physics, neuroscience, and this one, biology. for 34-year-old tin lay, one of the best thing at emory has been his interaction with the other students. >> i have experience working with my friend, they feel love and stress. if engaging meditation, breaking meditation, it helps a lot. >> breaking news. fredericka whitfield in the newsroom. high profile university preet bharara announced he has been fired after dozens of u.s. attorneys were told to step down as they got notice last might,

friday, at the end of the working day with outrage over how the process was handled. cnn justice reporter laura jarrett on the phone. what more do we moe, laura, about his tweet saying he was indeed, fired? >> reporter: that's right, frederica. he tweeted out moments ago, i did not resign. being u.s. attorney in the southern district of new york will forever be the greatest honor of my professional life and that's all he said. he did not say who called him or reveal any other details. but we are learning that he was asked to resign yesterday along with the other 46 u.s. attorneys across the country. we're told by a u.s. official he was asked to resign just like the rest for purposes of uniformity, but as you have pointed out before earlier today, that this is a big turn of events as last november, he was told he would be allowed to

stay on by the president of the united states. so we don't know all the details, what changed over these last three months, frederica. >> are you able to tell us how he was informed that was he was among those u.s. attorneys being asked to resign before he then responded by saying, you have to fire me? >> reporter: we understand he received a call from the acting deputy attorney general. that's dana bente, at main justice. and they were exchanging postpophone calls and mr. bharara said they don't know. >> there have been expressed concerns about on going cases and what kind of interruption this would be that so many attorneys were asked to resign and now in the case of preet bharara being fired, what's your

understanding about he may have been involved cases and how his firing perhaps jeopardizes those investigators or not? >> reporter: there are a number of career attorneys across the country in u.s. attorney's offices. he's certainly not alone there, but as you mentioned, he does have an active docket there in the southern district of new york. he handles a lot of public corruption cases. a lot of insider trading cases, and so we'll have to wait to see how all of this shakes out. >> okay. legal analyst paul callan with us also. now we know via tweet from preet bharara's account that he has been fired in. and some cases may have stemmed from the allegation from donald

trump that trump tower was wiretapped, the president saying that very definitively via tweet last week. do you see any real parallels into those potential cases of the firing of preet bharara and any ongoing matters? >> i think it's possible, fred, because the southern district seat, this prosecutorial seat is the most powerful and heavily publicized seat. you have jurisdiction over wall street and the entire, most of the media operates largely out of new york. so it's everything the u.s. attorney does gets publicity and this guy, preet bharara gets it out there and if he's investigating or in any way investigating the story concerning the russian wiretaps and whether the president was wiretapped in the trump tower, it could be sure that preet

bharara was front and center. also, a mentor and counsel to senator chuck schumer and i think the president may have been wary of the top prosecutor being so friendly with senator schumer and wants to put his own person in the job. so i think that's how this is going to play out in the end. the president just wants his own u.s. attorney in place rather than somebody, a predecessor appointed. >> that alone is not unusual, paul, most administrations when they have a changing of the guard, there's a change in the u.s. attorneys. people see the existing attorneys out and bring in new u.s. attorneys, but it's the method in which this happened that 46 would be a given notice in one fell swoop. how unusual is that in your view? >> unusual but not unprecedented. bill clinton fired 93 in one

fell swoop. it's happened in the past and replaced them with his own people. what's different are two things. one, trump had a meeting with preet bharara and said about staying in the job and all of the press was surrounding that meeting was that he was going to keep preet bharara on the job and i think the second hingthin i've never heard of a u.s. attorney issuing a tweet about being fired. it just shows how communication with the public has changed. usually, likelihood be a staged press release and now we're twittering. been fired by the president of the united states. >> there's the tweet there from preet bharara saying he was fired. we've been reporting all day long that preet bharara said in no uncertain terms, he would resign but instead that he would be fired. potentially, the president was

listening to that sentiment as we talked about it all day and now preet bharara said he was fired. do we know how he was fired, if received a phone call, a notice, you know, a face-to-face meeting? what do we know? all right. laura not with us. okay. let me bring in now cnn corresponde corresponde corresponde correspondent sarah ganim. known to tackle high profile cases from corruption to wall street. tell us more about his career and his appointment almost 8 years ago. >> reporter: incredibly well respected and well known. he was appointed 8 years ago by then president barack obama. he had been chief council to senate majority leader chuck schumer. schumer has now emerged as one

of the chief adversaries of donald trump. back in wine, schumer encouraged president obama to appoint bharara after one of his investigations led the then attorney general alberto gonzalez to resign. bharara's office ended up prosecuting everything from percents li terrorists to russian crime bosses to the hacking group unanimo anonymous but bharara going after wall street corruption cases but this "time" magazine cover from 2012, i think we can show you, maybe not, but it said "time" said in 2012, this man is busting wall street. they called him the enforcer. he's greatly feared there. he prosecuted dozens of insiders trading including bernie mado madoff's brother. the corruption cases went well beyond wall street but also going after both democrats and

republicans and known for non-partisan. the offices of the two most powerful and his office is about to try several is former aides to andrew cuomo and bill de blasio and pay to play. that's what his office has been doing and what's on their docket, so to speak, as they move forward. remember, he leaves a very important federal district. this is a southern district of new york where trump tower is, so any federal investigation involving wiretapping or thinking else would likely have involved his office, keep that in mind as we look at the firing. >> so paul to pick up on that because you did introduce that topic or possibility, so paul

callan, i wonder if in hindsight, lparticularly since president-elect donald trump asked barra to stay on. and now this abrupt firing or about face in terms of how the president feels about the job of this u.s. attorney. will that potentially be a big mistake? >> i think it's a mistake only because preet bharara is just somebody who really knows how to communicate a message publicly and i think if we hear more from him about why he thinks he was fired and bear in mind, once he's terminated as a u.s. attorney, he's free to comment on anything about the president he wants to. he can't comment on cases that, you know, the detail of cases, but certainly can go vigorously after the president and remember for a minute, this seat. the u.s. attorney for the southern district.

thomas dewey, who ran against trueman. james comecomey, fbi director a former prosecutor in the district and then rudy giuliani. maybe the most famous of all who became mayor of the city of new york, former u.s. attorney for the southern district. a lot of powerful successful political figures have come out of this office. >> and even if fired as a prosecutor, we don't know what he knows, if anything, about some of the ongoing investigations that are now involving the president and his staff. is there a capacity in which preet bharara would share or help further any investigations he may be involved in when he was prosecutor and now post-prosecution with years of that information, would he be able to be utilized in the furtherance of cases or potential cases?

>> i think it would be highly unlikely. normally when a prosecutor leaves office, he really terminates all connection with ongoing prosecutions. he's a private citizen. he may be working for a law firm or a defense attorney. he won't have access to the information that he had previously and because he's the top guy in the office, the one story handling the minitty-grit are career prosecutors in place and unlikely they would need input from preet bharara regarding these ongoing investigations. >> any idea how off or difficult this might have been for the deputy hea among, well, one of two kept on to help convey the message to these upwards of 44 u.s. attorneys in some way that they need to resign. >> i think it must have been an extremely difficult moment because these people are all

highly respected attorneys. a lot of them left probably very, very prosperous positions in the private sector to do this public service of being a u.s. attorney and to be told initially, you know, we're going to keep you on and then suddenly, to be told you're out, it's really an embarrassing situation because bear in mind, if you know you're leaving a big job like this, you can start to look for other employment and line it up. a lot of these people now are blind sighted by this. they're out of the job and i don't care how high your job is. if you're out of a job, it's a tough thing to face. >> athena jones at the white house. can you corroborate or give us more detail about this firing that preet bharara has tweeted about but the white house saying anything about whether the firing indeed took place or what manner it took place? >> the white house isn't commenting at all. i've asked a couple of officials who appointed me to the department of justice.

that's exactly what white house press secretary seanspi spicer d reports not long ago who were at the trump golf course in vaf virginia. he said, keep in touch with the department of justice on that matter, so they are not answering questions about preet bharara or more broadly, about the firings of the u.s. attorneys. >> in the meantime, that is top of mind, what's taking place by way of the attorney general, jeff sessions, notifying all these u.s. attorneys. at the same time, right there on the property, still the growing concerns about what happened near midnight with this security breach and now this suspect also being arraigned in court. tell us more about what, if anything, the white house is revealing on this. >> sure. well, the president just spoke about this, to reporters at the golf course. i believe we have what he said. let's go ahead and play that and

then talk about it. >> okay. >> any comment? >> secret service did a fantastic job last night. i appreciated it. secret service did a fantastic job. it was a troubled person. very sad, actually. but secret service was fantastic. >> the president saying secret service did a fantastic job and jonathan tran, a 26-year-old with a california driver's license, the president aid he was a troubled person. he's arraigned today and upheld at the courthouse, of course, at this moment. sean spicer, the press secretary, expanded on the president's remarks say issiing night's secret service informed him and general kelly kept aware of the situation the entire time. he said any further questions should be directed to the secret

service but did say the secret service did a phenomenal job. those were spicer's words and continue to provide phenomenal protection to the president and the first family and the president was very appreciative of the efforts. the white house expressing confidence in the secret service but we know, this is a very close look because it's not the first time it happened and the suspect got close to the reside residere residen residence. >> growing questions about how this evaded detection. u.s. secret service officer was able to run into him and take down that suspect. athena jones, thank you so much at the white house. we'll continue on this story and much more on the newsroom. ana cabrera is up next.

you're in "cnn newsroom." i'm ana cabrera in new york. we begin with this breaking news surrounding the sudden order for 46 u.s. ordinary reasons attorn now learning preet bharara up until now refused to step down has officially been formally fired. bharara in the past half hour or so, saying he was