Why Buddhism is True

A Note to Readers

The introductory note of the book, 'Why Buddhism Is True,' clarifies the focus on naturalistic aspects of Buddhism, emphasizing universal core ideas while avoiding overly detailed doctrines. It aims to challenge and possibly transform readers' understanding of themselves and the world, highlighting the nuanced view of 'truth' in Buddhist teachings and the compatibility of Buddhist insights with other belief systems.

Core Themes

The book focuses on the naturalistic parts of Buddhism, excluding supernatural elements like reincarnation.
It addresses fundamental Buddhist ideas that can be found across different traditions, aiming to revolutionize the reader's perception of themselves and the world.
The book avoids extremely detailed aspects of Buddhist psychology and philosophy, such as the diverse categorizations of consciousness found in the Abhidhamma Pitaka.
Buddhism encourages skepticism about the everyday perception of truth, yet recognizes the importance of the concept of truth in its teachings, such as the Four Noble Truths.
Validating core Buddhist ideas does not necessarily conflict with other spiritual or philosophical traditions.

1. Taking the Red Pill

This chapter draws a parallel between the transformative choice depicted in 'The Matrix' and the adoption of Buddhism, emphasizing how meditation and Buddhist philosophy help unveil the illusionary nature of reality crafted by natural selection. It explains how natural selection leads to transient pleasures and perpetual dissatisfaction, suggesting that true happiness involves becoming aware of and confronting these delusions, a process facilitated by mindfulness and Buddhist practices.

The Matrix Analogy

In 'The Matrix,' Neo chooses between living in a delusion or waking up to reality by taking the red pill.
Western Buddhists see a parallel between taking the red pill and adopting Buddhism, which reveals the illusion in how they used to perceive the world.
Through meditation and Buddhist philosophy, these individuals feel they now see things more clearly and understand reality better.

Natural Selection and Delusion

Kind of cruel, in a way— but what do you expect from natural selection? Its job is to build machines that spread genes, and if that means programming some measure of illusion into the machines, then illusion there will be.

The human brain has been designed by natural selection to sometimes mislead us and create delusions.
This delusion serves the purpose of promoting behaviors that enhance the propagation of our genes, rather than giving an accurate view of reality.
Feelings like anxiety, despair, hatred, and greed often carry elements of delusion and can cause suffering.
The pursuit of fleeting pleasures like junk food exemplifies how natural selection distorts our sense of satisfaction to keep us pursuing more pleasure.
Natural selection is not concerned with our happiness but with our productivity in terms of gene propagation, resulting in transient pleasure and perpetual dissatisfaction.

Buddhism and the Alleviation of Delusion

“Ultimately, happiness comes down to choosing between the discomfort of becoming aware of your mental afflictions and the discomfort of being ruled by them.”

Buddhism teaches that our constant search for fleeting pleasures leads to a state of 'unsatisfactoriness'.
The Buddhist notion of dukkha refers to this pervasive unsatisfactoriness or suffering caused by distorted perceptions and endless desires.
A deeper understanding of evolutionary psychology or natural selection doesn’t necessarily help in liberating oneself from these delusions.
The true path to happiness involves confronting and becoming aware of mental afflictions, which can be initially uncomfortable but ultimately liberating.
Mindfulness meditation and Buddhist philosophy can potentially reveal a more authentic perception of reality, helping to liberate one from the delusions ingrained by evolution.

All Highlights

“Ultimately, happiness comes down to choosing between the discomfort of becoming aware of your mental afflictions and the discomfort of being ruled by them.”

2. Paradoxes of Meditation

The chapter delves into the paradoxes inherent in meditation, the challenges faced by the author due to personal traits, and the potential of meditation to address modern issues like tribalism. Through experiences from a meditation retreat, it explores key Buddhist concepts such as not-self and emptiness, and ponders whether negative feelings might be illusions that meditation can dispel, ultimately connecting personal enlightenment with social progress.

Paradoxes in Meditation

Meditation paradoxically involves achieving success without explicitly pursuing it. By focusing less on success, meditators become less attached to material goals and more present-focused.
Achieving meditative success may mean valuing conventional success less. This paradox is similar to those seen in modern physics, such as an electron being both a particle and a wave.

Challenges in Meditation

The author identifies as a naturally bad meditator, aligning himself closer to impulsive individuals rather than serene figures like the Dalai Lama.
Personal traits such as volatility, harsh judgment, and attention deficits make mindfulness practice particularly challenging.
A paradox is noted: those who might benefit most from meditation often find it hardest to practice due to their mental challenges.

Tribalism and Modern Society

Tribalism, defined by harsh judgment and ready rage towards opposing groups, is viewed as a significant modern problem.
Meditation could help mitigate tribalist tendencies by fostering calmer, more sympathetic engagement with others.

The Meditative Retreat Experience

The author details a seven-day meditation retreat involving extensive meditation sessions and a strict regimen, leading to initial struggles with focus and anger.
A breakthrough occurred when the author embraced the uncomfortable sensation of over-caffeination, demonstrating a key meditative technique of accepting and observing feelings.
Acceptance and careful observation of negative feelings, such as sadness, can reduce their unpleasantness through a shift in perspective.

Buddhist Philosophy and its Real-World Implications

The author poses the question of whether negative feelings can be seen as illusions, which can be dispelled through a change in perspective, supported by meditative practices.
The chapter introduces the idea that Buddhist concepts like not-self and emptiness challenge conventional perceptions of reality.
The chapter concludes by suggesting that understanding and addressing delusions in perception could help reduce individual and collective suffering, highlighting the intersection of personal meditation practice with broader social impact.

3. When Are Feelings Illusions?

The chapter explores the nature of feelings from both Buddhist philosophical and evolutionary perspectives. It discusses how feelings can often be illusions, particularly when they're mismatched to our modern environment. Through mindfulness meditation and cognitive-behavioral therapy, one can learn to scrutinize and manage these feelings, reducing their impact on one's well-being.

Buddhism's Perspective on Feelings

One of the lessons of Buddhist philosophy is that feelings just are, and accepting their arising and subsiding without deep emotional reactions can lead to greater well-being.
Mindfulness meditation helps individuals become less reactive to their feelings, which many find beneficial.

Evolutionary Insights on Feelings

Feelings arose as evolutionary tools to help organisms make decisions about approaching or avoiding stimuli based on their survival value.
Natural selection designed feelings to help organisms judge what is beneficial or harmful to them.

False Feelings Due to Evolutionary Mismatch

Many feelings that were adaptive in our evolutionary past may no longer be beneficial in modern environments, leading to 'false' feelings.
Examples include cravings for sugar, which were useful earlier but may lead to overconsumption of junk food today.

Natural Illusions and False Positives

Feelings related to perceived threats, like the fear of snakes, can be evolutionarily advantageous even if they're often incorrect.
These 'false positives' prioritize survival over accurate perception.

Mindfulness and Cognitive Therapy

Mindfulness meditation and cognitive-behavioral therapy share the goal of examining and questioning the validity of feelings.
Both approaches aim to reduce the influence of maladaptive emotions by addressing their underlying thoughts or simply observing the emotions nonjudgmentally.

4. Bliss, Ecstasy, and More Important Reasons to Meditate

The chapter explores the concepts of mind wandering, the default mode network, and the benefits of both concentration and mindfulness meditation. It emphasizes the significance of mindfulness in everyday life and outlines the ultimate goals of meditation, including insight and enlightenment.

Challenges in Meditation

The author shares his struggles with meditation during his first weeklong retreat, highlighting his frustration over his inability to focus on his breath due to frequent mind wandering.
Through dialogue with his meditation teacher, he learns that noticing mind wandering is a significant first step in meditation.

Default Mode Network

The default mode network in the brain activates when we are not engaged in any particular task, leading to mind wandering.
Meditating helps interrupt the default mode network, thereby reducing mental chatter and enabling better focus.

Concentration and Mindfulness Meditation

Concentration meditation focuses on sustaining attention on a single object, like the breath, leading to deepening serenity and sometimes even vivid, blissful experiences.
Mindfulness meditation involves observing one's thoughts and sensations mindfully, aiming for a broader understanding and acceptance of one's mental state.

Benefits of Mindfulness Meditation

Mindfulness meditation can improve everyday life by helping you manage emotional reactions better and make you more attuned to beauty.
Experiencing sensations more deeply, such as eating or observing nature, becomes more profound during retreats focused on mindfulness.

Insight and Enlightenment

Vipassana, or insight meditation, aims to achieve a deeper understanding of the
marks of existence: impermanence, suffering, and not-self.
Enlightenment involves deeply understanding these marks of existence, particularly the challenging notion of not-self, which leads to liberation from suffering.

5. The Alleged Nonexistence of Your Self

The chapter explores the Buddhist concept of anatta (not-self), explaining that the self is an illusion composed of five aggregates that aren’t truly self. Through meditation, one can begin to experience detachment from these aggregates, reducing suffering. Despite language limitations and historical ambiguities, a central Buddhist theme is the flawed perception of the self, which is less controlled and more transient than perceived, a view that modern psychology may support.

Understanding Anatta (Not-Self)

Ajahn Chah emphasized that the idea of anatta, or not-self, is hard to grasp intellectually and is better understood through meditation.
Buddhism teaches that realizing you are selfless can make you selfless in behavior, fostering empathy and generosity.
Walpola Rahula emphasized that the belief in a self leads to harmful thoughts and actions, suggesting that it is the root of all trouble in the world.

The Seminal Not-Self Sermon

The Buddha’s Discourse on the Not-Self examines the five aggregates constituting a human being—form, feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness—and concludes none qualify as the self.
The Buddha linked the idea of the self to control, noting that if something were truly self, it would be under one's control, which these aggregates are not.
The Buddha also critiqued the notion of a persistent self, stating that all aggregates are impermanent.

Does Not-Self Mean No Self?

The Buddha’s discourse hints at a liberated 'you' that remains, leading to questions about the existence of a self after all aggregates are disowned.
Language might not fully capture the deeper reality of not-self, implying a self that exists conventionally but not ultimately.

A Heresy Examined

“Engagement” refers, rather, to a stronger connection between consciousness and the other aggregates. Engagement is the product of a “lust,” as the Buddha puts it, that people have for the aggregates; there is a clinging to them, a possessive relationship to them. In other words, the “engagement” persists so long as the person fails to realize that the aggregates are “not-self.” The person clings to emotions, thoughts, and other elements of the aggregates as if they were personal belongings. But they’re not.†

liberation consists of changing the relationship between your consciousness and the things you normally think of as its “contents”— your feelings, your thoughts, and so on. Once you realize that these things are “not-self,” the relationship of your consciousness to them becomes more like contemplation than engagement, and your consciousness is liberated. And the “you” that remains— the you that, in that first discourse on the not-self, the Buddha depicts as liberated— is this liberated consciousness. I

Some scholars question if the Buddha really denied the existence of the self, suggesting liberation might involve a purified form of consciousness.
The concept of 'witness consciousness' might align with a consciousness disengaged from its contents, presenting a possible liberated self.

Practical Approach to Not-Self

Meditation might help reframe one's relationship with thoughts and feelings, leading to partial experiences of not-self.
Experiences like those during meditation can help dissociate self from certain feelings, reducing suffering.
The idea is to redefine self to exclude elements causing suffering and understand them as not part of the self.

Taking Charge by Letting Go

Letting go of control over unpleasant feelings shows they are not part of the self, leading to a liberating detachment.
Maintaining a conception of self might aid in reaching a point where its existence is questioned.

Final Thoughts

As we saw in chapter 2, feelings are designed by natural selection to represent judgments about things, evaluations of them; natural selection “wants” you to experience things as either good or bad. The Buddha believed that the less you judge things— including the contents of your mind— the more clearly you’ll see them, and the less deluded you’ll be.

Still, amid all the disagreement over what the Buddha said and what the Buddha meant, there are some themes that everyone agrees are part of the Buddhist tradition from early on. And one of these is that our conception of our selves is, at best, wildly off the mark. We associate the self with control and with firm persistence through time, but on close inspection we turn out to be much less under control, and much more fluid, with a much less fixed identity, than we think.

Historical inconsistencies aside, a central Buddhist theme is that our view of the self is flawed and fails to recognize its transient and uncontrollable nature.
Modern psychology may support this view, suggesting our intuitive sense of self is an illusion.

All Highlights

6. Your CEO Is MIA

This chapter explores the concept of the not-self through Buddha's discourse, modern psychology's view on the illusion of self-control, and evolutionary psychology's modular mind theory. It highlights how self-delusion and memory biases align with evolutionary advantages, questioning the conscious self's role as a central decision-maker.

The Buddha's Discourse on Not-Self

The Buddha's teaching encounters resistance, exemplified by Aggivessana challenging his claim that the self isn't found in the five aggregates.
Using the 'king' metaphor, the Buddha illustrates that no one has complete control over form, feeling, perception, mental formations, or consciousness.
Buddha suggests that the sense of a chief executive within the self is illusory.

Modern Psychological Insights

Questions about how in control the conscious mind really is have now been raised from a lot of experimental angles. In a famous series of experiments first done in the early 1980s by Benjamin Libet, researchers monitored the brains of subjects while they “chose” to initiate an action. The researchers concluded that the brain was initiating the action before the person became aware of “deciding” to initiate it.

If the conscious self isn’t a CEO, directing all the behavior it thinks it’s directing, how does behavior get directed? How do decisions get made? An increasingly common answer within the field of psychology, especially evolutionary psychology, is that the mind is “modular.” In this view, your mind is composed of lots of specialized modules— modules for sizing up situations and reacting to them— and it’s the interplay among these modules that shapes your behavior. And much of this interplay happens without conscious awareness on your part.

Modern psychology parallels Buddha's views, asserting that the conscious self isn't a powerful executive authority.
Various experiments show that conscious decisions often follow brain activity, suggesting the brain initiates actions before we consciously decide to act.

Self-Delusion and Natural Selection

In short, from natural selection’s point of view, it’s good for you to tell a coherent story about yourself, to depict yourself as a rational, self-aware actor. So whenever your actual motivations aren’t accessible to the part of your brain that communicates with the world, it would make sense for that part of your brain to generate stories about your motivation.

Our egocentric biases are aided and abetted by the way memory works. Though certain painful events get seared into our memories— perhaps so we can avoid repeating the mistakes that led to them— we are on balance more likely to remember events that reflect favorably on us than those that don’t. And we remember positive experiences in greater detail than negative experiences, as if the positive events are specially primed for sharing with the public in rich detail. No such asymmetry of narrative detail is found in our memory of positive and negative things that happen to other people.

What’s more, when we recount an experience to someone, the act of recounting it changes the memory of it. So if we reshape the story a bit each time— omitting inconvenient facts, exaggerating convenient ones— we can, over time, transform our actual belief about what happened. Which presumably makes it easier to convince others that our story is true.

Buddhist philosophy aligns with scientific findings on self-delusion, questioning why natural selection favors self-deception.
Self-delusion can be advantageous for convincing others of our coherence and control, beneficial for our genes' survival.
Memory biases help maintain a positive self-image and support coherent narratives about ourselves.

The Modular Mind

So if the conscious mind isn’t in control, what is in control? As we’ll see, the answer may be: nothing in particular. The closer we look at the mind, the more it seems to consist of a lot of different players, players that sometimes collaborate but sometimes fight for control, with victory going to the one that is in some sense the strongest. In other words, it’s a jungle in there, and you’re not the king of the jungle. The good news is that, paradoxically, realizing you’re not king can be the first step toward getting some real power.

The capacity for feeling, and for subjective experience in general, is what gives life meaning and what gives valence to moral questions. If you imagine a planet full of humanlike robots, incapable of subjective experience, would there be anything obviously wrong about destroying them, or anything obviously good about creating more of them?

Evolutionary psychology suggests the mind is modular, with specialized parts collaborating and competing, often outside conscious awareness.
Modules are not like separate compartments but interact fluidly, and lack a central CEO, resembling a self-organizing system.

All Highlights

So if you’re a Buddhist philosopher, you may feel vindicated. But you may also feel puzzled. Why would natural selection design a brain that leaves people deluded about themselves? One answer is that if we believe something about ourselves, that will help us convince other people to believe it. And certainly it’s to our benefit— or, more precisely, it would have been to the benefit of the genes of our hunter-gatherer ancestors— to convince the world that we’re coherent, consistent actors who have things under control.

7. The Mental Modules That Run Your Life

This chapter explores the interplay between Buddhism and modern psychology, focusing on the impermanence of psychological states and the role of mental modules. It delves into experiments showing how external stimuli influence behavior, supporting the Buddhist view of a non-enduring self. Emotions are key in activating different mental modules, challenging the notion of a unified self. Mindfulness meditation is suggested as a practice to manage and gain clarity over these fleeting states.

Intertemporal Utility Function and Discounting

The intertemporal utility function describes willingness to delay gratification, differing among individuals.
Economic models suggest this rate is a fixed psychological feature, which contrasts with Buddhist ideas of impermanence.

Buddhist Concept of Not-Self

The Buddha argued that mental formations, like all aggregates, are impermanent and not part of the self.
The commonsense notion of an enduring self is challenged by the constant flux in our psychological state.

Psychological Experiments and Module Activation

Psychological studies show that exposure to certain stimuli (e.g., pictures of women) can change our time discounting function.
Experiments indicate that modules or 'subselves' can dominate our behavior based on context, altering preferences and inclinations.

Impact of Emotions and Modules

Emotions play a significant role in activating different mental modules, influencing behavior and perceptions.
Jealousy exemplifies a powerful emotion that can dramatically activate specific modules, changing a person's behavior extensively.

Implications for the Concept of Self

With modules constantly shifting control based on feelings, the idea of a unified, enduring self is questioned.
Modern psychology and Buddhist thought align on the view that multiple 'selves' take turns controlling behavior.

Role of Mindfulness Meditation

Mindfulness meditation can help in managing the influence of feelings, reducing the control of fleeting modules.
Achieving a critical distance from emotions through mindfulness can bring clarity and reduce illusions.

All Highlights

It may seem that such illusions aren’t worth getting up in arms about. What’s wrong with men and women indulging in self-delusion in the course of trying to impress each other? Nothing, I guess. Some illusions are harmless, and some are even beneficial. Far be it from me to try to talk you out of all your illusions. By and large, my philosophy is Live and let live: if you’re enjoying the Matrix, go crazy.

8. How Thoughts Think Themselves

This chapter explores how different Buddhist meditative practices provide insights into the workings of the human mind, particularly through the lens of the modular model. It explains how mindfulness meditation can reveal the modular nature of the mind and the role of feelings in propelling thoughts. The chapter also draws connections to Buddhist teachings and modern psychology’s understanding of the cognitive-affective relationship.

Different Buddhist Traditions

Zen, Tibetan, and Vipassana meditation traditions emphasize different aspects: mindfulness, visual imagery, and psychological insight.

Mindfulness as a Study Tool

Mindfulness meditation allows individuals to study their own minds by observing mental processes.
This practice is not producing scientific data but aligns with scientific theories which can validate meditative observations.

The Modular Model of the Mind

The modular model of the mind suggests that the mind is made up of parts or 'modules' that can operate independently.
Meditation can reveal the modular nature of the mind through common experiences like mind wandering.
These mental wandering thoughts are often self-referential and socially oriented, consistent with evolutionary purposes.

Meditative Progress and Thought Observation

Through meditation, you observe thoughts arising and passing as if external to a conscious 'self', aligning with the idea that modules generate these thoughts.
Thoughts appear to be bubbling up into consciousness rather than being produced by a 'self'.

The Role of Feelings in Thought

“Curiosity is a gift, a capacity of pleasure in knowing.”

Whether curiosity is more like a desperate hunger or a delightful lure seems to depend on how directly and urgently relevant it is to our interests as defined by natural selection; the less direct and urgent the connection, the more subtle and pleasant the feeling.

“Every thought has a propellant, and that propellant is emotional.”

Thoughts often have feelings attached, guiding their strength and prominence in consciousness.
Curiosity, for instance, can be driven by pleasure or urgency, showing how feelings propel thoughts.
Feelings act like labels, determining the priority of thoughts as per the modular and evolutionary perspectives.

Buddhism and Cognitive-Affective Entanglement

In a famous sutra called The Greater Discourse on the Destruction of Craving, the Buddha says that a “mind object”— a category that includes thoughts— is just like a taste or a smell: whether a person is “tasting a flavor with the tongue” or “smelling an odor with the nose” or “cognizing a mind object with the mind,” the person “lusts after it if it is pleasing” and “dislikes it if it is unpleasing.”

Buddhism acknowledges the entanglement of thoughts and feelings, similar to modern psychological findings.
The Greater Discourse on the Destruction of Craving illustrates that thoughts and sensory perceptions are treated similarly with respect to affect.

All Highlights

“Curiosity is a gift, a capacity of pleasure in knowing.”

“Every thought has a propellant, and that propellant is emotional.”

9. “Self” Control

The chapter explores David Hume's concept that emotions drive human reason, supported by modern neuroscience showing brain regions tied to emotions influence decisions. It highlights the evolutionary role of feelings and presents mindfulness meditation as a strategy for managing impulses and self-control issues.

Self and Emotion

David Hume observed that human reason is driven by emotions, meaning decisions are based on feelings rather than pure rational thought.
Hume's concept aligns with Buddhist thought, suggesting that feelings attract more influence than we recognize.

Scientific Insights

Modern neuroscience corroborates Hume’s ideas, showing that decisions are guided by brain areas associated with emotions rather than rational deliberation.
Researchers predict purchasing behavior based on brain activity in regions related to pleasure and pain.

Evolutionary Perspective

Evolution shaped feelings as motivators for survival and reproduction, with intelligence enhancing the ability to inform and act on these feelings.
Complex social dynamics led to feelings being assigned to more activities, influencing thoughts and actions.

Self-Control and Reason

“Reason alone,” Hume argued, “can never oppose passion in the direction of the will.” Nothing “can oppose or retard the impulse of passion but a contrary impulse.”

Traditional views of self-control suggest reason combating temptation, but modern neuroscience indicates reason influences feelings, not directly countering them.
Studies show prefrontal cortex activity supporting self-control is intertwined with emotional systems.

Modular Mind Concept

The mind functions through competing modules with different goals, leading to a power struggle influenced by feelings.
Self-control issues often manifest as conflicts between modules advocating for short-term gratification versus long-term benefits.

Mindfulness Meditation

Mindfulness meditation offers a way to manage impulses by observing and understanding feelings, decreasing their influence.
Meditation facilitates recognizing feelings, accepting them, investigating their nature, and reducing attachment to them.

Addiction and Habits

Viewing self-discipline as a muscle explains why habits form, suggesting mindfulness as a method to address addiction by weakening dominant modules.
By experiencing gratification, certain modules gain strength, which can lead to addiction if not managed mindfully.

All Highlights

Brain-scan studies have shown that the same parts of the brain that mediate physical pain also mediate the pain of social rejection. Which helps explain why opiates and other painkillers can take the sting out of social setbacks. Even extended doses of Tylenol, one study showed, can dull the pain of social rejection.

“Reason alone,” Hume argued, “can never oppose passion in the direction of the will.” Nothing “can oppose or retard the impulse of passion but a contrary impulse.”

10. Encounters with the Formless

In this chapter, the author explores the Buddhist concepts of formlessness and emptiness, arguing that perceived reality is constructed by the mind and lacks intrinsic essence. Through meditation, it's possible to perceive raw sensory experiences without imposed narratives. Modern psychology supports this view by showing how perception is an active process. The chapter also discusses the moral significance embedded in Buddhist teachings and the importance of direct contemplative practice for achieving liberation.

Illusory Nature of Reality

In Buddhism, the concept of 'formlessness' or 'emptiness' suggests that the solid and structured world perceived by our senses is an illusion.
'Form' is considered empty, highlighting that perceived reality lacks a true, intrinsic essence.
This insight is achieved through advanced meditative practice, where reality is perceived without the constraints of forms.

The Psychological Perspective

Modern psychology supports the claim that our perception of the world is a constructive process, influenced by our brains making inferences based on incomplete sensory data.
Illusions, like those in 3-D movies, demonstrate how our minds construct reality and sometimes make errors.
Mindfulness meditation can help dissolve the structures we impose on sensory experiences, allowing us to perceive 'formless' or 'empty' reality.

Meditative Practice and Perception

During meditation, our habitual interpretations of sensory inputs can fall away, revealing perceptions without connotations.
Construction noises, when accepted without the label of 'unpleasant,' can be perceived as beautiful, showing how perception is influenced by our mental constructs.
Removing the negative connotations and stories associated with certain perceptions can transform 'noise' into 'music.'

The Doctrine of Emptiness

The essence of objects like a buzz saw is not inherent but is constructed by our minds based on experiences and connotations.
By stripping away these constructed 'essences,' it becomes evident that perceived unpleasantness is not inherent in objects but is imposed by us.
This understanding supports the Buddhist view that 'raw sensory data' should be perceived without constructing narratives about it.

Moral and Narrative Meaning

Deeply embedded in Buddhist thought is the intrinsic moral value of sentient life— not just the value of human beings but the value of all organisms that have subjective experience and so are capable of pain and pleasure, of suffering and not suffering. And this value in turn imparts value to other things, such as helping people, being kind to dogs, and so on. Moral meaning is, in that sense, inherent in life.

In Buddhism, moral meaning is intrinsic to life, emphasizing the value of sentient beings capable of experiencing pain and pleasure.
However, the narratives we construct in daily life often impose additional, non-inherent meanings onto our experiences.
Mindfulness meditation helps examine and deconstruct these narratives, allowing us to see reality more clearly.

Teacher’s Perspective

Her job is to teach liberation, and at that moment she was my teacher. Besides, she seemed to think that nothing does more good for the world than a truly liberated being— not even an unliberated author who steers others in the general direction of liberation.

Buddhist teachers like Narayan Liebenson argue that liberation is achieved by understanding and dissolving the narratives we impose on reality.
They emphasize direct contemplative practice over intellectualizing to avoid creating additional mental constructs.
The intrinsic value of liberation is considered higher than guiding others through intellectual means.

All Highlights

11. The Upside of Emptiness

This chapter explores the relationship between emotional response, perception, and the Buddhist concept of emptiness. It discusses Capgras delusion as an example of disrupted emotional recognition and equates emotional responses with perceptions of 'essence.' Meditation can diminish these emotional reactions, making the world appear 'empty' but still detailed. The role of stories in shaping our sensory experiences is also examined, showing how cognitive expectations can alter actual perception.

Capgras Delusion and Emptiness

Fred's case of Capgras delusion illustrated a disconnection between recognition and emotional response, leading him to believe his wife was an imposter.
Capgras delusion involves recognizing someone visually but feeling they lack their 'essence,' which is central to the Buddhist concept of emptiness.
The Buddhist idea of enlightenment involves seeing the world without essence but does not mean gaining delusions like Capgras.

Affective Response and Perception

Human beings identify things not just by appearance but by their emotional response to them.
Feelings affect our recognition of places and objects, similar to Capgras delusion affecting person recognition.
Meditation can reduce the emotional associations we have with perceptions, making the world seem 'empty' of inherent essence but still possessing observable qualities.

Essence and Affect

Attributing inner essences to objects, a tendency called 'essentialism,' impacts our feelings and perceptions of those objects.
Objects can evoke emotional reactions due to their history, like JFK's tape measure feeling more valuable than an identical one.
Zajonc proposed that almost all perceptions have significant affective components, making judgments based on feelings.

Meditation and Perception of Emptiness

He answered, “But it’s a much cleaner perception. If I’m tasting a glass of wine and I’m trying to impress some restaurant critics or some friend who’s a great wine fancier, then I may have a story going, I may have an expectation for how this wine should be and how I should expect it to taste, and so it really blocks my clear, simple perception. . . . So by getting this thought out of the way, this emotional thought out of the way, I have a much higher likelihood of directly perceiving whatever the sensation is.”

Meditation fosters a perception of the world as 'formless' or 'empty,' reducing strong affective reactions to things.
The experience of seeing things without emotional context allows for a clearer and simpler perception.
Rodney Smith and Gary Weber's practices show how strong emotional reactions diminish, leading to a perception that objects lack distinct essences.

Stories and Perception

Maybe the reason babies get so immersed in shapes and textures is because they haven’t yet developed their filing system, their sense of essence. In other words, they don’t yet “know” what the “things” surrounding them are, so the world is a wonderland of exploration. And maybe this helps explain how Weber could say that “emptiness” is actually “full”: sometimes not seeing essence lets you get drawn into the richness of things.

The stories and beliefs we hold influence our feelings and thus the 'essence' we perceive in things.
Narratives attached to objects, like a wine's label, can affect the sensory experience of that object, modulating perception in line with cognitive expectations.
Perceptions free from background stories lead to a purer and possibly more accurate sensory experience.

All Highlights

12. A Weedless World

This chapter explores the Buddhist concept of emptiness and scientific ideas around essence, perception, and biases. Through meditation experiences, the author illustrates how perceived essences of people and objects are constructed and can alter dramatically, impacting judgments and moral views. Psychological mechanisms that maintain these essences also influence social interactions and conflicts. Meditation helps to breakdown these preconceived notions, promoting empathy and a clearer understanding of others.

Essence and Perception

The author recalls an experience during a meditation retreat where they perceived a weed, Plantago major, differently and reflected on why some plants are labeled as weeds while others aren't.
This altered perception aligns with Buddhist concept of emptiness, highlighting how essence or identity ascribed to objects can change.
The realization that essences can be seen as illusions impacting judgments and biases serves as a central theme.

Judgment and Biases

Social psychology experiments reveal that humans quickly judge others, attributing essences based on minimal evidence.
Darwinian perspective suggests that these judgments served adaptive purposes, influencing interactions beneficial for survival.
People’s tendency to see actions as reflecting inherent traits rather than situational factors is known as the fundamental attribution error, which has significant social and moral implications.

Essence-Preservation Mechanisms

Humans possess mechanisms to maintain perceived essences of people, interpreting behaviors in ways that support existing judgments.
Enemies' good actions are often attributed to situational pressures, and friends' bad actions to external circumstances.
Tribal psychology, an extension of these mechanisms, influences perception and can lead to skewed moral judgments and biases, such as demonizing enemies during conflicts.

Expediency vs. Understanding

The author describes how mindfulness meditation can reduce negative emotions and promote empathy towards others.
They recount an experience where meditation helped them feel compassion towards an enemy by breaking down pre-existing negative perceptions.
Meditation practice can lead to a more detached, less prejudiced understanding of others, challenging preconceptions.

13. Like, Wow, Everything Is One (at Most)

This chapter explores Buddhist concepts of not-self and emptiness, underscored by personal anecdotes and philosophical discussions. It contrasts these ideas with Hinduism's notion of a universal soul and incorporates scientific perspectives on self and interdependence. The chapter also delves into the 'three poisons' in Buddhism, linking them to the sensation of self and the path to enlightenment.

Meditative Experience and Not-Self

The author describes a meditative experience where he felt that a tingling in his foot was no more a part of him than the singing of a bird.
This led to a philosophical discussion about the sense of self and the boundaries we instinctively assume, questioning whether sensations originating inside the body are essentially different from external stimuli.
Such experiences are common among accomplished meditators, who recognize the importance of perceiving a fundamental unity or emptiness.
This 'not-self' experience involves questioning the inherent nature of self and its distinctions from the external world, which are core concepts in Buddhist philosophy.

Buddhism vs. Hindu Philosophy

There is a sense of dissolution of the bounds of self and an ensuing sense of continuity with the world out there. If you’re Buddhist (at least, a Buddhist of the mainstream type), you’re encouraged to think of that as a continuity of emptiness; and if you’re a Hindu, you’re encouraged to think of it as a continuity of soul or spirit.

Buddhist philosophy emphasizes concepts like not-self and emptiness, whereas Hindu thought, specifically Advaita Vedanta, proposes that the individual soul is part of a universal soul.
These philosophical differences often lead to debates, as seen in discussions between the author and meditation experts like Gary Weber.
While Buddhist teachings deny the existence of a self or soul, some interpretations, like Weber's, suggest a sense of oneness with the universe, blurring lines between Buddhist and Hindu viewpoints.

Scientific Perspective on Self

“Between what a man calls me and what he simply calls mine the line is difficult to draw.” In that sense, he observed, “our immediate family is

Evolutionary biology offers an explanation for our intuitive boundaries of self, suggesting that familial empathy and love are products of natural selection to support gene transmission.
Interdependent relationships, including symbiotic ones with bacteria in our bodies, challenge traditional notions of self, as these relationships influence our emotions and thoughts.

Three Poisons in Buddhism

The refrain warns people to avoid the “three poisons” of raga, dvesha, and moha. Those three words are typically translated as “greed, hatred, and delusion,”

Buddhist teachings highlight the 'three poisons'—greed (raga), hatred (dvesha), and delusion (moha)—which are seen as fundamental obstacles to achieving enlightenment.
The concept of tanha, or craving, is directly tied to the sensation of self and overcoming it is crucial for liberation from suffering.
These poisons are interconnected; desire and aversion reinforce the sense of self, which in turn sustains these destructive emotions.

All Highlights

“Between what a man calls me and what he simply calls mine the line is difficult to draw.” In that sense, he observed, “our immediate family is

The refrain warns people to avoid the “three poisons” of raga, dvesha, and moha. Those three words are typically translated as “greed, hatred, and delusion,”

14. Nirvana in a Nutshell

The chapter discusses the distinction between nirvana and bliss, illustrating nirvana's deeper and more enduring nature. It emphasizes mindfulness meditation's role in achieving liberation by understanding and observing feelings without craving. The 'not-self' concept is explained through the interaction of self with external causes, and the chapter ends with a highlight of the interaction between Buddhist thought and scientific insights.

Nirvana versus Bliss

Nirvana includes bliss but also entails enlightenment.
Nirvana represents perfect happiness, peace, and full awakening.
Unlike fleeting bliss obtained through drugs, nirvana entails more enduring contentment.

Nirvana's Dual Nature

Nirvana straddles both the naturalistic side and the more metaphysical side of Buddhism.
Naturalistic interpretation emphasizes mindfulness as an escape from suffering.

The Unconditioned and Conditioned

'The unconditioned' in Buddhism contrasts with things that are 'caused'.
Nirvana involves an escape from causal chains, like the twelve conditions leading to rebirth.

Mindfulness Meditation

“It is here in this space between feeling and craving that the battle will be fought which will determine whether bondage will continue indefinitely into the future or whether it will be replaced by enlightenment and liberation. For if instead of yielding to craving, to the driving thirst for pleasure, if a person contemplates with mindfulness and awareness the nature of feelings and understands these feelings as they are, then that person can prevent craving from crystallizing and solidifying.”

This has been the point of much of this book. The human brain is a machine designed by natural selection to respond in pretty reflexive fashion to the sensory input impinging on it. It is designed, in a certain sense, to be controlled by that input. And a key cog in the machinery of control is the feelings that arise in response to the input. If you interact with those feelings via tanha— via the natural, reflexive thirst for the pleasant feelings and the natural, reflexive aversion to the unpleasant feelings— you will continue to be controlled by the world around you. But if you observe those feelings mindfully rather than just reacting to them, you can in some measure escape the control; the causes that ordinarily shape your behavior can be defied, and you can get closer to the unconditioned.

conditions— from chains of causation that otherwise shackle you. The things in your environment— the sights, the sounds, the smells, the people, the news, the videos— are pushing your buttons, activating feelings that, however subtly, set in motion trains of thought and reaction that govern your behavior, sometimes in ways that are unfortunate. And they will keep doing that unless you start paying attention to what’s going on.

Mindfulness can prevent craving from arising from feelings.
Mindfulness meditation is essential for achieving liberation from both rebirth and present suffering.
Observation of feelings mindfully allows for a reduction in controlled behavior by external stimuli.
Meditative progress involves awareness of causes affecting feelings and behavior.

Not-Self Concept

Consider the idea of not-self: what we call the “self” is in such constant causal interaction with its environment, is so pervasively influenced by the world out there, as to raise doubts about how firm the boundaries of the self— and, for that matter, the core of the self— really are. Remember how the Buddha emphasized, in that original not-self sermon, that the various things we think of as parts of our self are in fact not under our control? The reason they’re not under our control is that— until we’re liberated, at least— they’re under the control of outside forces: they’re conditioned. And remember the Buddha’s emphasis on the impermanence of the things we think of as parts of the self? This too— the perennial arising and passing away of thoughts, emotions, attitudes— is a consequence of the ever-changing forces that act on us, forces that set off chain reactions inside us. The things inside us are subject to causes, to conditions— and it is the fate of all conditioned things to change when conditions change. And conditions change pretty much all the time.

The self is influenced by constant causal interaction with the environment.
Perceived parts of the self are conditioned and impermanent.
Meditation increases awareness of how external forces shape the self.

Scientific and Buddhist Interactions

Mindfulness meditation involves rational analysis of feelings.
Engaging rational faculties through meditation helps inform better responses to the world.
Darwinian theory and Buddhist enlightenment are connected through understanding human conditioning.

All Highlights

15. Is Enlightenment Enlightening?

This chapter explores the linkage between enlightenment and liberation in Buddhism, contrasting it with The Matrix's more tangible struggle. It discusses how natural selection imposes self-serving delusions, and achieving enlightenment involves rejecting these values through experiential understanding. Enlightenment encompasses seeing the truths of not-self and emptiness, fostering moral objectivity and universal concern. The chapter emphasizes mindfulness meditation as a tool for transcending evolutionary biases and achieving a more truthful, interconnected view of reality.

Enlightenment and Liberation

The concept of enlightenment has been linked to liberation in various forms throughout history.
Buddhism equates liberation with seeing through the illusion of life and understanding the true nature of things.

Differences Between The Matrix and Buddhism

In The Matrix, truth is easily describable and rebellion is against robot overlords, which gives a clear enemy to fight.
Buddhism lacks a tangible oppressor, making the struggle more internal.
Secular Buddhism does not include figures like Mara, making it less about battling evil and more about understanding natural selection's influence.

Natural Selection as the Oppressor

Well, from natural selection’s point of view, this is heresy. If there’s one idea that natural selection has built into me, it’s that I have distinctive interests and should focus on them. On those occasions when some of my interests overlap with the interests of others, then fine, we can do business; but if there’s no such overlap, my interests take priority.

Natural selection, like robot overlords, has built delusions into our brains to serve its agenda of genetic propagation.
This process encourages moral and metaphysical enlightenment as a rebellion against natural selection's control.
Enlightenment involves understanding not-self and emptiness on an experiential level, transcending intellectual persuasion.
Liberation means rejecting the value system imposed by natural selection.

The Enlightenment Checklist

Enlightenment in Buddhism involves seeing the truth of core ideas like not-self and emptiness.
There is no single, official definition of enlightenment, but it includes insights like impermanence and overcoming cravings.
Enlightenment links metaphysical truths to moral behavior, implying values that challenge natural selection's values.

Rebellion Against Natural Selection

The not-self experience diminishes the sense of individual specialness.
From natural selection's view, prioritizing personal interests is necessary, but enlightenment challenges this by seeing all interests as interconnected.
The exterior and interior not-self experiences both involve rejecting the notion that one's self is inherently special.

Emptiness as Truth

Emptiness means recognizing that things don't have inherent essence, shaped by feelings.
Feelings are dubious guides to reality since they serve biological and self-serving purposes.
Achieving the experience of emptiness involves seeing through subjective judgments.

Einstein and Enlightenment

Like Einstein's theory of relativity, seeking enlightenment requires adopting a perspective from nowhere.
This involves transcending individual and species-specific perspectives to see reality more clearly.

Moral Objectivity and Universal Concern

True enlightenment involves moral objectivity and impartial concern for all sentient beings.
This universal view defies natural selection's drive to create specific, competitive perspectives.

The Cosmic Context

Life on Earth has evolved toward higher levels of social organization, driven by increasing interdependence.
Today, globalization and technological advancements highlight humanity's shared destiny and interconnected fates.
To sustain this global civilization, humanity must transcend the evolutionary biases of individual and group specialness.

Mindfulness as a Tool

Mindfulness meditation challenges natural selection's self-serving biases, fostering truth and collective well-being.
Buddhism offers a systematic path to unwarping human consciousness from the distortions of natural selection.

All Highlights

16. Meditation and the Unseen Order

In this chapter, the author reflects on their first meditation retreat, revealing transformative experiences and insights into the nature of self-criticism. Meditation is presented as a continuous process of enlightenment, offering both personal and global benefits. The concept of dharma and the idea of seeing meditative practice as aligning metaphysical and moral truths are emphasized.

Experiencing Transformation

The author's first meditation retreat had a profound impact, opening a figurative door to new experiences and self-awareness.
A vivid visual and sensory experience during meditation led to a powerful realization about the nature of self-criticism.
The realization allowed the author to see self-critical thoughts as external and not necessarily valuable.

Meditation and Self-Understanding

Meditative experiences can offer significant revelations about one's inner mental processes.
These experiences can be deeply emotional, leading to moments of bliss, gratitude, and liberation from self-loathing.

Continued Meditation Practice

The author continues meditating despite not achieving constant enlightenment, noting the practice's numerous benefits.
Meditation allows the perception of objective truths, such as the nuanced sound of a refrigerator or the physical manifestation of emotions.
Observing negative emotions mindfully can reduce their intensity, supporting the Buddhist claim that suffering (dukkha) is optional.

The Incremental Path to Enlightenment

“Monks, true knowledge is the forerunner in the entry upon wholesome states, with a sense of shame and fear of wrongdoing following along.”

Enlightenment is viewed as an ongoing process rather than a single dramatic event.
The practice of meditation helps break down false perceptions, leading to a clearer view of reality and reducing suffering.
Meditation fosters a better understanding of moral truths, enhancing compassion and reducing negative judgments about others.

Global Implications

The author believes that calm, clear minds fostered by meditation can help mitigate global conflicts by promoting clearer and more empathetic thinking.
A revolution in human consciousness, driven by mindfulness and meditation, is necessary for lasting global peace.

Meditation as a Secular Practice

Despite its roots in Buddhism, the author practices a secular form of meditation, focusing on the practical benefits rather than religious rituals.

The Concept of Dharma

evidence in favor of it. This three-part alignment— the alignment of metaphysical truth and moral truth and happiness— is embodied in the richly ambiguous word that lies at the heart of Buddhist practice: dharma.

Dharma represents the alignment of metaphysical truth, moral truth, and happiness, serving as the foundation for Buddhist practice.

All Highlights

“Monks, true knowledge is the forerunner in the entry upon wholesome states, with a sense of shame and fear of wrongdoing following along.”

Appendix A List of Buddhist Truths

This chapter outlines core Buddhist ideas and defends their validity using insights from modern science, particularly evolutionary psychology and neuroscience. Major themes include human suffering, the concept of self, the illusion of essences, and the transformative potential of meditative practices. The chapter emphasizes the alignment between Buddhist thought and scientific understanding of human nature.

Introduction to Buddhist Truths

The book presents an argument for the validity of core Buddhist ideas, particularly those that align with a naturalistic perspective.
These ideas find substantial corroboration from modern science, especially neuroscience and evolutionary psychology.

Scientific Validity

Science never proves theories in the mathematical sense but provides substantial corroborating evidence.
Buddhist ideas are considered 'true' because they align with well-supported scientific theories without conflicting evidence.

Human Perception and Suffering

Humans often misapprehend the world, leading to personal and communal suffering.
This misapprehension, fueled by natural selection, involves perpetual dissatisfaction and aspiration.

Dukkha and Natural Selection

Dukkha, often translated as 'suffering' or 'unsatisfactoriness,' is a recurring element of ordinary life.
Natural selection designed humans to be perpetually dissatisfied to drive survival and reproduction.

Tanha

Tanha, or 'craving,' is the source of dukkha and includes both the desire for pleasant things and aversion to unpleasant ones.
This craving is instilled by natural selection to ensure organisms remain motivated.

Overcoming Tanha

Meditative practices such as mindfulness can weaken the grip of craving and aversion.
This does not mean becoming numb to feelings but developing a selective engagement with them.

Concept of Self

The intuitive conception of the 'self' is misleading and optional.
Meditation can help reduce the identification with thoughts and feelings, thus reducing suffering.
Natural selection engineered various feelings, validating the idea that one need not accept all feelings uncritically.

Interior vs. Exterior Not-Self

The interior not-self experience questions the ownership of thoughts and feelings, supported by modern psychology.
The exterior not-self experience suggests the boundaries of the self are illusory, although this is more metaphysical and less empirically corroborated.

Moral Implications

A sense of self-dissolution, coupled with reduced identification with selfish impulses, can lead to greater moral truth.
Evolutionary biology supports the idea that prioritizing others' interests can be morally valid.

Essences and Emptiness

The intuition that objects and beings have 'essences' is an illusion created by natural selection.
Recognizing this can help reduce suffering and improve moral conduct.

Importance of Clear Perception

Not seeing the world clearly can lead to personal suffering and immoral behavior.
Meditative practices can improve both happiness and moral behavior by providing clearer perceptions.

Awareness of Conditioning

Mindfulness meditation increases awareness of the causes of behavior and the role of feelings.
This awareness can help break chains of influence and lead to greater liberation.

Conclusion

Buddhist teachings align with an understanding of humans as products of natural selection.
The core Buddhist assessment of the human condition can be defended with modern science.

A Note on Terminology

The chapter discusses the author's choices in using Sanskrit and Pali terminology for Buddhist concepts, balancing the context of Theravada and Mahayana traditions. It explains the preference for terms like discourse over sutra and the use of enlightenment over awakening to align the book's themes with rational analysis and Western scientific philosophy.

Language Choices

The author faces terminological choices in writing about Buddhism, specifically the use of Sanskrit versus Pali.
Not-self is emphasized in Theravada Buddhism and is referred to as anatta in Pali.
Emptiness is emphasized in Mahayana Buddhism and is referred to as sunyata in Sanskrit.
Terms like nirvana and dharma are commonly recognized in their Sanskrit forms in the West.

Decisions on Terminology

The author uses both Sanskrit and Pali terms, deciding based on context or sometimes arbitrarily.
Sutra vs. sutta is context-dependent, with discourse often preferred due to its argumentative connotation.

Enlightenment vs. Awakening

Enlightenment, though less literal, is used over awakening to denote the broader, rational analysis aligned with Western philosophy and science.

Acknowledgments

This chapter acknowledges the numerous contributions from educational institutions, colleagues, students, and family that influenced the development of the book. It underscores the Buddhist concept of interdependence, reflecting on how various influences shape one's work.

Interdependent Universe

Daniel Ingram's book 'Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha' credits its authorship to the 'Interdependent Universe' to reflect the Buddhist philosophy that everyone's work is influenced by countless factors.
Buddhist philosophy emphasizes the interconnectedness and interdependence of all things, implying that no individual can take sole credit for their accomplishments.

Support from Educational Institutions

The author's teaching roles at Princeton University and Union Theological Seminary provided immense support and opportunities to refine the ideas in the book.
The development of the online course 'Buddhism and Modern Psychology' on Coursera allowed the author to reach a larger audience and gain further insights from students.

Acknowledgment of Contributors

Numerous individuals including students, colleagues, and experts in various fields provided feedback and support during the writing process, contributing to the clarity and depth of the book's content.

Silent Meditation Retreats

The author participated in silent meditation retreats at the Insight Meditation Society, which greatly influenced the book through the insights and teachings of meditation teachers like Joseph Goldstein and Sharon Salzberg.

Support from Publisher

The author received ongoing support from their editor, assistant, and various other staff at Simon & Schuster, helping to polish and finalize the book.

Personal Support

Personal acknowledgments were given to the author's family and close friends, whose support and feedback were crucial to the writing process.
The author's wife, Lisa, played a significant role in editing and improving the book's clarity and quality.