Why Buddhism is True

The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment

paperback, 336 pages

Published May 8, 2018 by Simon & Schuster.

View on OpenLibrary

(28 reviews)

A journey through psychology, philosophy, and lots of meditation that shows 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 only discovering 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 readers on a journey through psychology, philosophy, and a great many silent retreats to …

3 editions

Review of 'Why Buddhism is True' on 'Goodreads'

Robert Wright falls into the trap of many western / secular Buddhists - namely, in the urge to intellectualize and explain the doctrines of this ancient teaching while the source material itself often states clearly that this is not the way to go. There is even a segment in the book where Wright retells of when his meditation teacher advised him -not- to write this book, and he went on to do it anyway.

That being said, there were a few chapters that I really enjoyed and that balanced these problems. This book could possibly work well to spark an interest in Buddhism to a person with no prior knowledge to the matter but it should not be considered a book that helps one walk the path of Buddhist practice. After all, breaking free of our intellectual constructs and delusions by using intellectual thinking is, well, like trying to bite …

Review of 'Why Buddhism is True' on 'Goodreads'

I should say as a preface that one of the things I need to work on is my tendency to be snarky about things that may be exactly what someone else needs, but that just don't appeal to me where I am right now. Having said that, I expect that there will still be some snark below, but be assured that prior drafts were much worse.

My main criticism of this book is that, in the service of making the case that Buddhism (or a subset of it) is compatible with science (or a subset of it), the book presents superficial, and in some cases misleading, pictures of both.

Also the author drops a lot of names, which always annoys me. :)

If you haven't read the book yet, and are curious about Buddhism or doubtful that it could be true, I certainly wouldn't discourage you from reading it! And …

avatar for Jeff

rated it

avatar for chris_st

rated it

avatar for dstokes

rated it

avatar for NC

rated it

avatar for 5easypieces

rated it

avatar for ianbetteridge

rated it

avatar for philroyle

rated it

avatar for pcalvin

rated it

avatar for Ascapola

rated it

avatar for tulkas

rated it

avatar for lumii

rated it

avatar for DavidLove

rated it

avatar for carlbrown

rated it

avatar for robphippen

rated it

avatar for samfirke

rated it

avatar for pcppcp

rated it

avatar for DaveNash3

rated it

avatar for derek3x

rated it

avatar for nowwearealltom

rated it

avatar for rustybroadsword

rated it

avatar for amerpie

rated it

avatar for gfontenot

rated it

avatar for teerav

rated it

avatar for rslomkow

rated it