Why Buddhism is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment

Description: Why Buddhism is True by Robert Wright Synopsis coming soon....... FORMAT Paperback LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Publisher Description From one of Americas most brilliant writers, a New York Times bestselling journey through psychology, philosophy, and lots of meditation to show how Buddhism holds the key to moral clarity and enduring happiness.At the heart of Buddhism is a simple claim: The reason we suffer—and the reason we make other people suffer—is that we dont see the world clearly. At the heart of Buddhist meditative practice is a radical promise: We can learn to see the world, including ourselves, more clearly and so gain a deep and morally valid happiness. In this "sublime" (The New Yorker), pathbreaking book, Robert Wright shows how taking this promise seriously can change your life—how it can loosen the grip of anxiety, regret, and hatred, and how it can deepen your appreciation of beauty and of other people. He also shows why this transformation works, drawing on the latest in neuroscience and psychology, and armed with an acute understanding of human evolution. This book is the culmination of a personal journey that began with Wrights landmark book on evolutionary psychology, The Moral Animal, and deepened as he immersed himself in meditative practice and conversed with some of the worlds most skilled meditators. The result is a story that is "provocative, informative and...deeply rewarding" (The New York Times Book Review), and as entertaining as it is illuminating. Written with the wit, clarity, and grace for which Wright is famous, Why Buddhism Is True lays the foundation for a spiritual life in a secular age and shows how, in a time of technological distraction and social division, we can save ourselves from ourselves, both as individuals and as a species. Author Biography Robert Wright is the New York Times bestselling author of The Evolution of God (a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize), Nonzero, The Moral Animal, Three Scientists and their Gods (a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award), and Why Buddhism Is True. He is the cofounder and editor-in-chief of the widely respected Bloggingheads.tv and MeaningofLife.tv. He has written for The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The New York Times, Time, Slate, and The New Republic. He has taught at the University of Pennsylvania and at Princeton University, where he also created the popular online course "Buddhism and Modern Psychology." He is currently Visiting Professor of Science and Religion at Union Theological Seminary in New York. Review "A sublime achievement." —Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker"Provocative, informative and... deeply rewarding.... I found myself not just agreeing [with] but applauding the author." —The New York Times Book Review"This is exactly the book that so many of us are looking for. Writing with his characteristic wit, brilliance, and tenderhearted skepticism, Robert Wright tells us everything we need to know about the science, practice, and power of Buddhism." —Susan Cain, bestselling author of Quiet"I have been waiting all my life for a readable, lucid explanation of Buddhism by a tough-minded, skeptical intellect. Here it is. This is a scientific and spiritual voyage unlike any I have taken before." —Martin Seligman, professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania and bestselling author of Authentic Happiness"A fantastically rational introduction to meditation…. It constantly made me smile a little, and occasionally chuckle…. A wry, self-deprecating, and brutally empirical guide to the avoidance of suffering." —Andrew Sullivan, New York Magazine "[A] superb, level-headed new book." —Oliver Burkeman, The Guardian"Robert Wright brings his sharp wit and love of analysis to good purpose, making a compelling case for the nuts and bolts of how meditation actually works. This book will be useful for all of us, from experienced meditators to hardened skeptics who are wondering what all the fuss is about." —Sharon Salzberg, cofounder of the Insight Meditation Society and bestselling author of Real Happiness "What happens when someone steeped in evolutionary psychology takes a cool look at Buddhism? If that person is, like Robert Wright, a gifted writer, the answer is this surprising, enjoyable, challenging, and potentially life-changing book." —Peter Singer, professor of philosophy at Princeton University and author of Ethics in the Real World"Delightfully personal, yet broadly important." —NPR"Rendered in a down-to-earth and highly readable style, with witty quips and self-effacing humility that give the book its distinctive appeal and persuasive power." —America Magazine"Beautifully written and persuasively argued, Why Buddhism is True is the most accessible book on some of Buddhisms extraordinary, even radical, claims.... Powerful, eloquent, spiritual and scientific... A creative and compelling exploration of the Buddhas mind." —The Tribune (India)"[Why Buddhism is True] will become the go-to explication of Buddhism for modern western seekers, just as The Moral Animal remains the go-to explication of evolutionary psychology." —Scientific American"Cool, rational, and dryly cynical, Robert Wright is an unlikely guide to the Dharma and not-self. But in this extraordinary book, he makes a powerful case for a Buddhist way of life and a Buddhist view of the mind. With great clarity and wit, he brings together personal anecdotes with insights from evolutionary theory and cognitive science to defend an ancient yet radical world-view. This is a truly transformative work." —Paul Bloom, professor of psychology at Yale University and author of Against Empathy: The Case for Rational Compassion"[Written] with such intelligence and grace." —Patheos"What a terrific book. The combination of evolutionary psychology, philosophy, astute readings of Buddhist tradition, and personal meditative experience is absolutely unique and clarifying." —Jonathan Gold, professor of religion at Princeton University and author of Paving the Great Way: Vasubandhus Unifying Buddhist Philosophy"Joyful and insightful... both entertaining and informative." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)"A light, accessible guide for anyone interested in the practical benefits of meditation." —Vox"A well-organized, freshly conceived introduction to core concepts of Buddhist thought.... Wright lightens the trek through some challenging philosophical concepts with well-chosen anecdotes and a self-deprecating humor." —Kirkus Reviews"[Wrights] argument contains many interesting and illuminating points." —The Washington Post"Amusing and straight-forward.... Anyone... can safely dip their toes in the water here." —BookFilter"Regardless of their own religious or spiritual roots, many open-minded readers who accompany [Wright] on this journey will find themselves agreeing with him." —Shelf Awareness Review Quote "[Written] with such intelligence and grace." --Patheos Excerpt from Book Why Buddhism is True 1 Taking the Red Pill At the risk of overdramatizing the human condition: Have you ever seen the movie The Matrix? Its about a guy named Neo (played by Keanu Reeves), who discovers that hes been inhabiting a dream world. The life he thought he was living is actually an elaborate hallucination. Hes having that hallucination while, unbeknownst to him, his actual physical body is inside a gooey, coffin-size pod--one among many pods, rows and rows of pods, each pod containing a human being absorbed in a dream. These people have been put in their pods by robot overlords and given dream lives as pacifiers. The choice faced by Neo--to keep living a delusion or wake up to reality--is famously captured in the movies "red pill" scene. Neo has been contacted by rebels who have entered his dream (or, strictly speaking, whose avatars have entered his dream). Their leader, Morpheus (played by Laurence Fishburne), explains the situation to Neo: "You are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else, you were born into bondage, into a prison that you cannot taste or see or touch--a prison for your mind." The prison is called the Matrix, but theres no way to explain to Neo what the Matrix ultimately is. The only way to get the whole picture, says Morpheus, is "to see it for yourself." He offers Neo two pills, a red one and a blue one. Neo can take the blue pill and return to his dream world, or take the red pill and break through the shroud of delusion. Neo chooses the red pill. Thats a pretty stark choice: a life of delusion and bondage or a life of insight and freedom. In fact, its a choice so dramatic that youd think a Hollywood movie is exactly where it belongs--that the choices we really get to make about how to live our lives are less momentous than this, more pedestrian. Yet when that movie came out, a number of people saw it as mirroring a choice they had actually made. The people Im thinking about are what you might call Western Buddhists, people in the United States and other Western countries who, for the most part, didnt grow up Buddhist but at some point adopted Buddhism. At least they adopted a version of Buddhism, a version that had been stripped of some supernatural elements typically found in Asian Buddhism, such as belief in reincarnation and in various deities. This Western Buddhism centers on a part of Buddhist practice that in Asia is more common among monks than among laypeople: meditation, along with immersion in Buddhist philosophy. (Two of the most common Western conceptions of Buddhism--that its atheistic and that it revolves around meditation--are wrong; most Asian Buddhists do believe in gods, though not an omnipotent creator God, and dont meditate.) These Western Buddhists, long before they watched The Matrix, had become convinced that the world as they had once seen it was a kind of illusion--not an out-and-out hallucination but a seriously warped picture of reality that in turn warped their approach to life, with bad consequences for them and the people around them. Now they felt that, thanks to meditation and Buddhist philosophy, they were seeing things more clearly. Among these people, The Matrix seemed an apt allegory of the transition theyd undergone, and so became known as a "dharma movie." The word dharma has several meanings, including the Buddhas teachings and the path that Buddhists should tread in response to those teachings. In the wake of The Matrix, a new shorthand for "I follow the dharma" came into currency: "I took the red pill." I saw The Matrix in 1999, right after it came out, and some months later I learned that I had a kind of connection to it. The movies directors, the Wachowski siblings, had given Keanu Reeves three books to read in preparation for playing Neo. One of them was a book I had written a few years earlier, The Moral Animal: Evolutionary Psychology and Everyday Life. Im not sure what kind of link the directors saw between my book and The Matrix. But I know what kind of link I see. Evolutionary psychology can be described in various ways, and heres one way I had described it in my book: It is the study of how the human brain was designed--by natural selection--to mislead us, even enslave us. Dont get me wrong: natural selection has its virtues, and Id rather be created by it than not be created at all--which, so far as I can tell, are the two options this universe offers. Being a product of evolution is by no means entirely a story of enslavement and delusion. Our evolved brains empower us in many ways, and they often bless us with a basically accurate view of reality. Still, ultimately, natural selection cares about only one thing (or, I should say, "cares"--in quotes--about only one thing, since natural selection is just a blind process, not a conscious designer). And that one thing is getting genes into the next generation. Genetically based traits that in the past contributed to genetic proliferation have flourished, while traits that didnt have fallen by the wayside. And the traits that have survived this test include mental traits--structures and algorithms that are built into the brain and shape our everyday experience. So if you ask the question "What kinds of perceptions and thoughts and feelings guide us through life each day?" the answer, at the most basic level, isnt "The kinds of thoughts and feelings and perceptions that give us an accurate picture of reality." No, at the most basic level the answer is "The kinds of thoughts and feelings and perceptions that helped our ancestors get genes into the next generation." Whether those thoughts and feelings and perceptions give us a true view of reality is, strictly speaking, beside the point. As a result, they sometimes dont. Our brains are designed to, among other things, delude us. Not that theres anything wrong with that! Some of my happiest moments have come from delusion--believing, for example, that the Tooth Fairy would pay me a visit after I lost a tooth. But delusion can also produce bad moments. And I dont just mean moments that, in retrospect, are obviously delusional, like horrible nightmares. I also mean moments that you might not think of as delusional, such as lying awake at night with anxiety. Or feeling hopeless, even depressed, for days on end. Or feeling bursts of hatred toward people, bursts that may actually feel good for a moment but slowly corrode your character. Or feeling bursts of hatred toward yourself. Or feeling greedy, feeling a compulsion to buy things or eat things or drink things well beyond the point where your well-being is served. Though these feelings--anxiety, despair, hatred, greed--arent delusional the way a nightmare is delusional, if you examine them closely, youll see that they have elements of delusion, elements youd be better off without. And if you think you would be better off, imagine how the whole world would be. After all, feelings like despair and hatred and greed can foster wars and atrocities. So if what Im saying is true--if these basic sources of human suffering and human cruelty are indeed in large part the product of delusion--there is value in exposing this delusion to the light. Sounds logical, right? But heres a problem that I started to appreciate shortly after I wrote my book about evolutionary psychology: the exact value of exposing a delusion to the light depends on what kind of light youre talking about. Sometimes understanding the ultimate source of your suffering doesnt, by itself, help very much. An Everyday Delusion Lets take a simple but fundamental example: eating some junk food, feeling briefly satisfied, and then, only minutes later, feeling a kind of crash and maybe a hunger for more junk food. This is a good example to start with for two reasons. First, it illustrates how subtle our delusions can be. Theres no point in the course of eating a six-pack of small powdered-sugar doughnuts when youre believing that youre the messiah or that foreign agents are conspiring to assassinate you. And thats true of many sources of delusion that Ill discuss in this book: theyre more about illusion--about things not being quite what they seem--than about delusion in the more dramatic sense of that word. Still, by the end of the book, Ill have argued that all of these illusions do add up to a very large-scale warping of reality, a disorientation that is as significant and consequential as out-and-out delusion. The second reason junk food is a good example to start with is that its fundamental to the Buddhas teachings. Okay, it cant be literally fundamental to the Buddhas teachings, because 2,500 years ago, when the Buddha taught, junk food as we know it didnt exist. Whats fundamental to the Buddhas teachings is the general dynamic of being powerfully drawn to sensory pleasure that winds up being fleeting at best. One of the Buddhas main messages was that the pleasures we seek evaporate quickly and leave us thirsting for more. We spend our time looking for the next gratifying thing--the next powdered-sugar doughnut, the next sexual encounter, the next status-enhancing promotion, the next online purchase. But the thrill always fades, and it always leaves us wanting more. The old Rolling Stones lyric "I cant get no satisfaction" is, according to Buddhism, the human condition. Indeed, though the Buddha is famous for asserting that life is pervaded by suffering, some scholars say thats an incomplete rend Details ISBN1439195463 Publisher Simon & Schuster Year 2018 ISBN-10 1439195463 ISBN-13 9781439195468 Format Paperback Place of Publication New York Country of Publication United States DEWEY 294.342 Media Book Pages 336 Imprint Simon & Schuster Subtitle The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment Author Robert Wright Short Title Why Buddhism Is True Language English Publication Date 2018-06-14 NZ Release Date 2018-06-14 US Release Date 2018-06-14 UK Release Date 2018-06-14 Alternative 9781668016497 Audience General AU Release Date 2018-05-31 We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! TheNile_Item_ID:117452960;

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