Robert Wright: "Why Buddhism is True" (video)

Robert Wright, P&P, 9/11/17; QuickRead; Ashley Wells, Seth Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

(Politics and Prose, 9/11/17) Robert Wright is the author of Why Buddhism Is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment.

Why Buddhism Is True (Robert Wright) 

People have always struggled to understand why there’s suffering in the world. They have also struggled to find ways to relieve it.

Buddhism’s answer is that we suffer due to not seeing clearly. The practice proposes that clarity — and virtue and happiness along with it — comes through meditation (systematic exploration of reality).

Now research scientists are catching up with this ancient wisdom. Drawing on new findings in evolutionary psychology and neuroscience, Wright, co-founder and editor-in-chief of Bloggingheads.tv and the author of books including The Evolution of God and The Moral Animal, traces suffering to fear, anxiety, and anger, the strong emotions that alerted our ancestors to danger and helped them survive.

These triggers have been wired into us by evolution but now, instead of saving us, they cause us to suffer. Meditation can help us see the inherent meaninglessness of these drives and dispel their power.

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