In the popular sci-fi movie, The Matrix, the lead character, Neo, is informed that an artificial intelligence has subjugated the human race. To keep humanity blissfully unaware of its captivity, each person has been plugged into a life-like computer simulation. Upon his learning of this, Neo is given a choice between a blue pill and a red pill. If he takes the blue pill, he'll reenter the simulation none the wiser. If he takes the red pill, he'll escape the delusion and remain in the real world, awake and aware of the truth.

According to evolutionary psychologist Robert Wright, the circumstances and choice that Neo faced are also before us. Marshaling the latest in scientific and psychological research, he argues that science corroborates many central elements of Buddhist thought. Why Buddhism is True is his attempt to show how each of us has a warped understanding of reality and that Buddhist philosophy and meditation form the red pill we would be wise to take.

Our feelings of anxiety, fear, hopelessness, and greed are delusions. These delusions often cause suffering when we act on them. So why wouldn’t natural selection have weeded out such delusions?

Discoveries in science and psychology have revealed that, as human beings have evolved, the thoughts and belief patterns that get passed from one generation to the next are those that best ensure survival and reproduction. Natural selection has “designed” the brain to be far more concerned with survival than delivering an accurate picture of the world.

One ubiquitous feature of the human condition is an unrealistic hope in sensory experiences to bring lasting satisfaction. Our brain tells us that if we just get that next sexual encounter, or job promotion, or even that sugary donut on the counter, we will be happier than we are now. Such expectations are illusory; they leave us in a constant state of dissatisfaction. The Buddha called this negative state dukkha.

So what purpose does delusion serve? Put yourself in natural selection’s shoes: if you had to equip the human species for survival, it makes sense that you would build in a desire for pleasure to motivate. But you would also need to make sure that the satisfaction is short-lived so that humans would be motivated to continue seeking what they believe they need (safety, a mate, social recognition, etc.) without growing complacent. Clearly, natural selection built us for productivity—not lasting happiness. But because happiness is such a powerful motivator, the tendency to hunt the “highs” has not been removed by natural selection.

The accuracy and usefulness of feelings is arguably diminished in the modern world in which we live. The social anxiety we feel at, say, a social function where we do not know anyone, is a common feature of our modern, urbanized world, but it was not a likely scenario for our ancestors, where hunter-gatherer tribes were small and close-knit. Social anxiety—which is often needless and illusory—is, at root, a primal fear that ancestors harnessed to protect kin from predators.

In short, our feelings are deceptive at a number of levels: they were illusory even when they served the basic survivalist function for our ancestors; they have become increasingly illusory in “unnatural” environments; and, as mentioned earlier, we continually overestimate how long the good feelings will last.

Try the following experiment: sit on a pillow, attempt to focus on your breath, fail to focus on your breath for a prolonged period of time (this step is easy enough), and then call to mind what kinds of thoughts came up when you were attempting to focus on your breath. It is likely there are particular themes to your mind’s wanderings:

1) They will likely be thoughts about the future or the past, not the present.

2) You will probably be the subject of your thoughts.

3) Your thoughts about you will likely be in relation to other people.

In such exercises, the mind tends to cover a vast psychological landscape, fretfully or indulgently moving from thoughts and situations of self-preservation, acquiring or retaining a mate, or achieving higher social status. In short, the mind dwells on whatever drives are preoccupying you at the moment. Most people would admit that this is hardly a conscious selection of scenarios. Psychologists who hold to the concept of modular theory maintain that, when you are not doing anything in particular, mental modules are competing with one another to consolidate control of your consciousness.  

We can think of modules as various states of mind that arise to assist us in navigating different situations. For example, feelings for an attractive co-worker might trigger the mate attraction module to come to the fore of consciousness, leading one to think in terms of impressing that co-worker and putting down rivals. Other modules might include career aspiration, social status, and self-preservation. While these modules are hardly so neat or discrete, and though we cannot discern the exact interplay between them, they help explain why the same person would act in radically divergent ways.

So who runs the show? A plausible answer is modules, driven by feelings. These feelings are shown to be fleeting, unreliable, and unreal. Mindfulness and meditation are the best ways to co-opt the power of feelings so we are not at their mercy. Paradoxically, we will attain some real power as we admit that we are not in control of things the way we thought we were.

Consider the following thought experiment: at an auction you buy a watch that belonged to JFK. An admirer of JFK, you attribute tremendous positive significance to this watch. But as you excitedly walk out with the watch, one of the auctioneers quietly pulls you aside and informs you that there has been a mistake—this was not actually JFK’s watch! The real one will be mailed to you within the week. Suddenly, the watch in your hand has been drained of the essence-of-significance that you had assigned to it only moments ago.

We place essences, or “stories,” on just about everything. We do so frequently and with impressive efficiency. This is natural selection’s way of helping us prioritize. Consider how liberally we dole out adjectives in our everyday lives: tasty steak, noisy neighbor, stupid dog, delicious wine—the list would be lengthy.

Speaking of wine, taste tests have shown time and again how perception of a wine (and other foods and beverages) is shaped by the stories attributed to the wine. In one study, people were given the same wine, but were told that one bottle of wine was worth $90 and the other, only $10. The brain scans revealed that the pleasure centers fired more intensely when subjects tasted the wine they thought was more expensive. The assigned story shaped the subject’s perception of what they were experiencing.

We are so confident in the essences or stories we assign to objects, but these stories are mental constructions, often with no correspondence to reality.

The discussion of essence gains new import when we realize that we tend to attribute essence not just to inanimate objects, but also to other people. If we attribute essence-of-bad or essence-of-good to others, we will treat them accordingly. We are evaluators. Our brains have been conditioned through natural selection to make quick impressions of people. This is dangerous because such impressions are not always accurate.

What is more, once we assign an essence to someone, our brains are wired to maintain those assignments. So when an enemy—or at least someone whom we have written off as essence-of-bad—shows kindness, we dismiss the deed as riddled with ulterior motives. When a friend or ally does something unkind, we tend to extend the benefit of the doubt and chalk it up difficult circumstances in that person’s life. This is how our brains smooth over the incongruity that these anomalies generate.

People are much more fluid than often thought, driven by circumstances and states of mind arising from feelings. By assigning good and bad essences to people and vigilantly maintaining those associations, not only do we perpetuate the mistaken notion of a self, but we also perpetuate the conditions in which tribal psychology thrives. If there is a clear distinction between others and ourselves, then divisions between nations and ethnic groups will become increasingly pronounced and the chances for peace and harmony will become slimmer.

Most people’s initial attempts at meditation result in the mind’s wandering and frustration over an inability to focus on their breath. To recognize the mind’s wandering requires mindfulness, however, which is a step in the right direction. Without this awareness, people’s brains tend to operate in what psychologists refer to as the “default mode network.” It is the manner in which the inactive mind wanders when a person is doing nothing in particular. Through brain scans, scientists have found that default mode networks are far less active among experienced meditators.

Once you have managed to attain some level of focus, there are two common directions in which to take your meditation practice: concentration or mindfulness. In the concentration form of meditation, you continue to focus on the breath, honing the focus and deepening the breath. It tends to have an intensely calming effect. Depending on the tradition followed, images, sounds, mantras, and other elements can become the object of focus. Mindfulness meditation is useful because it helps you identify everyday scenarios in which you are tempted to indulge delusional feelings, it makes you more sensitive to beauty, and enables you to live in the present without being a slave to it.

Meditation as stress relief is helpful. The findings on meditation’s therapeutic benefits are clear enough, but grasping Buddhism’s deeper philosophical vision will help us shift our perspective in more fundamental ways. Meditation is an excellent way to clarify our vision of the world by dispelling the delusion that leads to suffering and atrocities in the world. It will help you and, in turn, will help bring healing to the world.

These insights are just an introduction. If you're ready to dive deeper, pick up a copy of Why Buddhism is True here. And since we get a commission on every sale, your purchase will help keep this newsletter free.

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