Why Buddhism Is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment Paperback – 9 August 2018
Robert Wright . Simon & Schuster . English
From one of America’s 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 don’t 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 Wright’s landmark book on evolutionary psychology, The Moral Animal, and deepened as he immersed himself in meditative practice and conversed with some of the world’s 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.
Categories: Action & Adventure
About the Author
[N.B. Rather frustratingly, a search for my Authors Page on Kindle now includes other books with my name, Robert Wright, in front of my own books. I did not write the book about Buddhism which always comes up first. I am sorting out this mistake by Amazon now. My seven titles are these: "Hunza and the Raj", available in paperback as well as Kindle, and the six which follow are all on Kindle only: "Letters from Hunza"; "A Box of Travel Papers"; "Rebellion in Gilgit: The Man for the Hour"; "Monkey Mischief"; "More Money Mischief"; and "Four Gripping Sieges". My brief biography follows below:] I was in born in 1949 in Ismailia on an army base beside the Suez Canal; my father was a British officer, and this was one of several postings aboard for our family. At that time the Empire was being mopped up, handed over to democracy, and becoming the enduring Commonwealth of Nations. Best loved and remembered were 2.5 years we spent among the tropical rubber plantations of Malaysia, where we stayed-on after Independence in 1957. A yearning for an easy, warm and privileged life in the East had been born in me. So it was that at 21 I hitch-hiked alone to India with the firm intent of learning yoga and meditation: but it was the roadside life of adventures and astonishingly lucky coincidences that had really caught me. In all I clocked up eleven years of risky escapades abroad – including a 19 month sentence in a Lebanese prison. When I returned from that all I wanted to do was work hard and learn new skills to save by to go traveling again. Ultimately I settled down as a wood turner and carver making reproduction English antique furniture, with big four-poster beds being my forte. My first books are all about these travels; but later I researched and wrote about the ancient, as well as the British colonial histories, of the places I had stayed for longest. “History as adventure”, became my motto.
