As someone who's a scientist but also has an interest in secular buddhism, this book is amazing and I can't recommend it enough. Wright does a great job of taking you on a journey of logic, not for the purpose of converting anyone to a buddhist way of thinking, but just to simply show that the buddha's philosophy makes a lot of sense. The buddha made observations about human psychology thousands of years ago, and Wright excellently puts that into the context of modern living. 1982111607 Just read Evolutionary Psychology by David Buss and as I have been trying to understand Buddhism for 50 years or so, I wondered how the two related to each other. The net immediately identified Why Buddhism is True and the rather brave author delivered abundantly. He confirmed the idea that dukkha as interpreted as unsatisfactoriness would enhance survival to reproduce. Mr Wright's honest description of his experiences during meditation are very helpful. He clarified the emptiness/formless ideas and helped me understand 'conditioning' very clearly. His discussion of no self enabled me to identify two slightly different points of view, one where the thoughts and feelings are not part of you which is his point of view, and the other where the thoughts and feelings are part of you, but not all of you, which I lean towards. Perhaps the other aspect he clarified that the word attachment could, depending on context, mean being 'lost in thought' i.e. conscious awareness being entrained in the thought stream as opposed to the mindfulness observation of the thought stream, is related to the two points of view about no self. His discussion about how the loving kindness towards all sentient beings could arise was not convincing to me, and would obviously be a great step towards avoiding conflict, but if we did see through the little tricks natural selection has programmed into us we may stop reproducing. 1982111607 Aware of the risks of claiming ‘truth’ in any field, Wright triangulates Buddhists philosophy and practice (essentially mediation) with perspectives from evolutionary and social psychology and, to a lesser extent, Western philosophical traditions. The author’s focus is on the ‘naturalistic’ side of Buddhist theory and doctrine, “ideas that would fit into a college psychology philosophy course”. He sidesteps supernatural and exotic notions such as reincarnation and is thus able to draw plausible parallels between Buddhist thought and modern brain science research. Through hundreds of years of mediation, Buddhists scholars have developed an integrated, modular model of the mind that seems to be validated by current brain studies. Moreover, the model of how thoughts and feelings emerge and compete in the conscious (and unconscious) mind can be explained by Darwinian natural selection. That link is a compelling intellectual idea itself, but Wright emphasises that mediation also offers the practical advantage of enabling individuals to (at least) control but maybe surpass such transient thoughts and emotions. Practitioners can shed their emotional and cultural baggage and eventually perceive the world in a purer, clearer way. Wright, the friendliest and most self effacing of guides, takes the reader on a complex, challenging journey but I have done enough meditation myself to know such insights are possible. As soon as I finished the book I enrolled in a local class to refresh and refocus my own practice, and recommend everyone to give mediation a go. 1982111607 We see the world through the distorting lens of natural selection that's the central idea in Wright's enlightening book but what is good for getting our genes passed onto the next generation (all that natural selection cares about) does not necessarily make for the good life. However, many centuries ago Buddhism came up with a way to look beyond our knee jerk reactions of attraction and repulsion. It is called mindfulness meditation and Wright adds modern knowledge from neuroscience and psychology to show how we can have a truer sense of our best interests and thereby gain self control.In particular, he is interested in two Buddhist concepts: not self and emptiness. Incidentally, these are two ideas I have long struggled with Let's start with emptiness because Wright helped me finally nail this idea. Although we see, for example, our home as the source of security, continuity and lots of warm feelings associated with family, it is really just a pile of bricks and mortar. In the Buddhist sense it is an empty concept onto which we have projected all these emotions. Sure, our home evokes lots of strong reaction but a passing stranger would just see a house and react to the architecture or the location which once again carries various cultural projections about whether a detached house is better than a semi detached and how close it is to shops or how remote (which are all equally arbitrary criteria). As a therapist, I'm used to the concept that nothing is inherently good or bad but coloured by how we marshal our experiences, our prejudices and our expectations.So good so far but not self is a much tougher idea. What I did find interesting is that Wright scuppers the idea of self as CEO which sits somewhere inside us and decides rationally what actions to take. Instead he uses neuroscience to explain that we have various modules that take charge. Rather than fighting temptation for example to eat high sugar and fat foods he suggests using the acronym: RAIN. Recognise the feeling, Accept it, Investigate the feeling and finally the hard bit but meditation apparently helps to Non identify with the feeling and have Non attachment to it. In this way the urge is allowed to form but does not get constantly re inforced by the short term pleasure of, for example, eating the cake. Thus the link to the reward is broken and although the urge might still blossom without gratification it reduces and ultimately subsides.The downside to this book is that Wright like the majority of us is a relative beginner to meditation and when it comes to seeking clarifications about Buddhism and enlightenment, he has to interview people further along the road. My suspicion is he often hears what he wants to hear, simplifying the arguments and glossing over the complexities of his case. Having said that I am convinced that I need to meditate and take on board the concept of emptiness because it is my attachment to particular things and outcomes which is often the source of so my unhappiness.A useful book that I will stay with me for a long time and I recommend to others who want to take the red pill and see the 'truth'. 1982111607 This is an amazing book that tries to unveil why buddhism is true. I started reading the book with a little background from various mindfullness and meditation books and as an experienced meditator.It's a great book and it reaches some of the same conclusions as prof. Peter Elsass did in my native danish language. Modern western world can learn a lot from buddhism in ways that would bring our mental state in balance (if it is in unbalance).The book is written with enormous insight into meditation, buddhism and psychology.Sometimes Robert gets a little bit to educating and 'know it all' but that actually suits this book.I can highly recommend it. 1982111607
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