Robert Wright is an author and a scholar. His most recent book, Why Buddhism is True, is an analytical look comparing the ancient concepts of Buddhism and the more recent findings of modern science. The title of his book may be a bit provocative, but we challenge you to hear him out before assuming what he writes about in his book on the topic. We think you’ll find this interview thought provoking and interesting as well as instructive and helpful. Whatever your reaction to the episode, we’d love to hear about it.
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In This Interview, Robert Wright and I Discuss…
- The Wolf Parable
- His book, Why Buddhism is True
- Evolutionary Psychology
- That according to Evolutionary Psychology we’re wired to do what’s best to propagate our genes into the next generation
- And how sometimes doing that might not be what’s best for ourselves or the world
- That we’re wired for a recurring dissatisfaction or discontented so we’d keep doing the things that would move us toward our goal of passing our genes on to the next generation
- Craving and Aversion
- Not following craving and aversion as guides are central to Buddhism
- According to Buddhism if we don’t run from unpleasant feelings like sadness, anxiety etc, they will actually become less painful over time
- That the Buddha intuited a lot of things that we now know to be true according to modern science and evolutionary psychology
- How our thoughts can sometimes subtlely influence us – ex Cognitive Bias
- Cognitive Bias being driven by emotion rather than being rational & Buddhism teaches that
- The Buddhist conception of the mind/brain and modern psychology’s conception of the mind/brain are very aligned
- In the cognitive battle for attention, the thought that “wins” is the one that has the most feeling attached to it
- How meditation can help give you clarity on thoughts and feelings and the difference between the two
- CBT & questioning your thoughts and feelings in Buddhism
- Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
- Allowing and observing rather than acting on our strong feelings
- The anguish we add to physical pain by the anticipation of it or the lamenting of it
- Essences that we impute into things
- The idea of not self and what it means
- The benefit of parceling out the things that we identify – like anxious feelings – as not being ourselves
- Thinking you’re not cut out for meditation
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