Why Buddhism Is True
The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment
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Narrated by:
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Fred Sanders
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By:
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Robert Wright
About this listen
From one of America's greatest minds, a journey through psychology, philosophy, and lots of meditation to show how Buddhism holds the key to moral clarity and enduring happiness.
Robert Wright famously explained in The Moral Animal how evolution shaped the human brain. The mind is designed to often delude us, he argued, about ourselves and about the world. And it is designed to make happiness hard to sustain.
But if we know our minds are rigged for anxiety, depression, anger, and greed, what do we do? Wright locates the answer in Buddhism, which figured out thousands of years ago what scientists are discovering only now. Buddhism holds that human suffering is a result of not seeing the world clearly - and proposes that seeing the world more clearly, through meditation, will make us better, happier people.
In Why Buddhism Is True, Wright leads listeners on a journey through psychology, philosophy, and a great many silent retreats to show how and why meditation can serve as the foundation for a spiritual life in a secular age. At once excitingly ambitious and wittily accessible, this is the first book to combine evolutionary psychology with cutting-edge neuroscience to defend the radical claims at the heart of Buddhist philosophy. With bracing honesty and fierce wisdom, it will persuade you not just that Buddhism is true - which is to say, a way out of our delusion - but that it can ultimately save us from ourselves, as individuals and as a species.
©2017 Robert Wright. All rights reserved. (P)2017 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.Critic reviews
What listeners say about Why Buddhism Is True
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- Anonymous User
- 07-04-20
interesting question posed
enjoyed the content. however, the performance wasn't to my liking, a little monatone now and again which caused minor relistening at points. The material definately gave me much to think about before, during and after the purchase.
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- Anonymous User
- 05-10-18
Interesting book
Listened to it after hearing about it on the Secular buddhism podcast. Worth listening to, but didn't offer anything of revelation
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- Anonymous User
- 29-12-18
the quality of the narration is often bad.
They didn't bother to re-edit poorly read sections and randomly swapped the narrating voice. It seemed a bit slapped together.
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- Anonymous User
- 16-02-22
very enjoyable book
it is an enlightening and informative listen. The narration is done well. The concepts are laid out in a coherent way with many examples. I believe it is a useful book for someone who is considering starting mediation or is currently started meditating (like myself). I particularly enjoyed the explanation about how natural selection has dictated the way we respond to a variety of stimuli and that we can control or evaluate these reactions through mindfulness and through the principles of Buddhism.
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- Anonymous User
- 02-07-20
Long but worth it!
Definitely a long listen, something I came back to every now and then over a few months. The arguments are long so you have to be invested. Really enjoyed it though.
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- Anonymous User
- 26-06-18
much better than title suggested
I nearly gave this a miss, expecting dry examples of lab studies that show benefits gained from meditation. luckily a friend recommended the book to me, and I am so pleased that he did. The author does a fantastic job of positioning natural selection as the boogyman who controls our lives, bringing to light research in psychology and evolutionary science. He then shows how Buddhism was ahead of the curve, identifying the same issues way before western science caught up... but also working on the solution - meditation.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 24-01-21
great reading
some really powerful concepts, something I need to listen a few times to digest but nevertheless it's a jewel something I plan to read several times in coming years.
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- Anonymous User
- 16-01-21
Thought-provoking
Initially thought the narrator's tone of voice was really boring and played it on 1.2 times speed, but then got hooked on the content, really clearly explained and with humorous little anecdotes. A bit of repetition, but that was useful in driving home the message. Overall, impressive, got me to start my journey towards "taking the red pill" ;) Only thing I'd say is on the title: the author advocates for secular Buddhism, not the religious kind.
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- Anonymous User
- 16-02-18
Excellent
I did not need to know the how or why of meditation. I knew it to be a valuable tool for survival in the frantic, stressful world we live in. It was however, refreshing to have them explained in such a detailed, logical, understandable way. I am not a Darwinist .. even so I found Robert Wright's thinking to be persuasive. The icing on the cake was the voice of Fred Sanders. Listening to him was almost addictive and I looked forward to each session to hear his delivery. The narrator can be the difference between total enjoyment and deleting the book. Well done for matching these two. A must listen if you have any interest in meditation.
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- Anonymous User
- 15-07-20
Brilliant
As a psychology and a Buddhist this book was a great read providing new insight into areas I hadn't even considered. HIGHLY recommend.
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