Title Why Buddhism is True

Author Robert Wright

Year Published 2017

Kind of Book Evolution/Spirituality

How strongly I recommend it 9/10 

My Impressions This book combines two of my favorite subjects—Evolutionary Psychology and Spirituality—and does it very well. I am a big fan of Robert Wright and think he nailed this one. If you are interested in looking at how the claims of Buddhism make sense in an evolutionary context than this is the book for you

Date Read December 2017

What question is the author trying to answer? Is there an evolutionary basis to back up the claims that Buddhism makes?

 

Big Ideas

  • The Buddhism concept of not-self can only be understood through meditation

  • If you try to grasp the Buddhism concept of not-self through intellectualizing alone, your head will explode

 

The 3 Basic principals natural selection designs into humans to get the most genes into the next generation…

1)Achieving these goals should bring pleasure

2)The pleasure shouldn’t last forever.

3)The animals brain should focus more on, the fact that pleasure will accompany the reaching of a goal, than on, the fact that pleasure will dissipate shortly thereafter.

 

  • Understanding the fact that we evolved to constantly seek pleasure and never be fully satisfied doesn't make a person any happier

In fact

  •  Understanding the fact that we evolved to constantly seek pleasure and never be fully satisfied can actually make person more depressed

Because

  • They see the absurdity and futility of pleasur-seeking

 

  • Natural selection doesn't 'want' us to be happy ie. We didn't evolve to be happy

Because

  • If we evolved to become truly happy and fully satisfied after receiving some sort of pleasure then we wouldn't have any motivation to reproduce (or do the necessary things like achieve status that make it possible to reproduce)

 

  • We feel social anxiety in the modern world

Because

  • In the modern world we meet new people all the time who know nothing about us so we feel pressure to make a good impression of who we our in just one meeting.

Whereas

  • In hunter gather societies everyone knows everyone so there was less pressure to make a good impression every time you saw someone.

 

  • Modern people often feel mortified about something embarrassing they did in front of a bunch of strangers who they will never see again

Because

  • We evolved in an environment where all of our actions had consequences and social repercussions

Because

  • We evolved in small tribes where we knew everyone and everyone knew us, so there was a level of accountability to everything that we did

 

  • Everyone thinks they are better than average

And

  • Everyone thinks that they do not fall victim to the bias that everyone thinks they are better than average

 

  • We are under the illusion that we have more conscious control over our actions than we really do

 

  • We often convince ourselves of the validity of whatever story about ourselves we think will look the best to others

 

  • The reason the conscious mind observes the debate between the thing we choose to do/say and the thing we didn't choose to do/say is so that if someone ever challenges you on why you did something you can give them a reason

 

  • After practicing meditation for a while you will find that the thoughts that arise that used to hijack the mind for a long time don't hold you attention for as long as they used to before you return your focus to your breathing

 

  • The conscious mind doesn't create thoughts

  • The conscious mind just receives thoughts from the unconscious mind

 

  • You can’t detach from thoughts until you’ve detached from the feelings the thoughts create

 

  • Your feelings about the thoughts you are having is what makes you automatically see the thoughts as being a part of you

  • In order to view thoughts objectively you must first detach from the feelings the thoughts create

 

  • When we hear the sound of an airplane passing overhead, the purest way to observe the sound it to just hear it for what it is (a low hum etc.)

But

  • The moment we attach the thought 'that sound is coming from an airplane' we are already moving further away from hearing the sound in its purest sense

 

  • The best thing you can do for the world/and others is to become a truly liberated being-Narayan Liebenson

 

  • Whether someone is nice or good has more to do on the situation they are in than on the type of person they are

 

  • Ignorance of the world and ourselves leads to suffering

  • Ignorance of the world and ourselves leads people to act immorally

 

  • Early Buddhist thinkers did a good job of laying out the problems that natural selection presents (ie. Hedonic tremil, endless craving etc.) for having no idea about natural selection