Buddhism and Modern Psycology

Now one question you could ask about a course called Buddhism and Modern
Psychology is which Buddhism are we're talking about. After all, as with other
religions, there are varieties of Buddhism. Just as there are different
denominations of Christianity. There are different versions of Buddhism in Asia,
and in addition to that, in, in recent decades, we've seen the emergence of
something that some people are calling a Western Buddhism. In the United
States, where I am, in Europe and so on. Consisting of people who weren't born
Buddhist. But have chosen to adopt Buddhist practice. In particular, meditation
practice. Now, one distinctive feature of this Western Buddhism is that these
people don't pay a lot of attention to what some people would call the
supernatural. Parts of Buddhism. So, for example, if you took some of these
Western Buddhists and showed them this. They'd say, what is that? Well the
answer is, it's a hungry ghost. And many Asian Buddhists believe that you might
be reincarnated as a hungry ghost in a kind of hell, if things don't go well. Or, if
things go better, you might wind up in a, in, in, in a heaven and spend years there
before. Being reincarnated again. But this, this Western Buddhism doesn't
really pay much attention to these kinds of ideas. And in that sense, the focus of
this course will have something in common with the Western Buddhism, because
we won't be talking much about things like Buddhist deities or reincarnation. 
And the reason is simple. This course is about the scientific evaluation of
Buddhist ideas. And reincarnation is just not an idea that's very susceptible to
scientific evaluation. I don't know how you'd set up an experiment to kind of test
the hypothesis of reincarnation. Now there are lots of ideas in, in Buddhism that
are what you might call naturalistic. That is to say, they are susceptible to
scientific evaluation. A lot of ideas about the human mind. So for
example,Buddhism addresses questions like, why do people suffer? Why do we
all feel anxiety? And sadness, and so on. Why do people behave unkindly
sometimes? Does the human mind deceive people about the nature of reality?
And can we change the way the mind works? In particular, through
meditation? Now, I want to emphasize that this kind of naturalistic part of
Buddhism is an authentic part of Buddhist heritage. It's found in the earliest
writings. And it is common to Asian Buddhism and, and Western Buddhism. It's
kind of a common denominator of Buddhisms. Now some people refer to this as
a secular Buddhism, but that may be a little misleading because, I think it's
possible to have a wholly naturalistic world view that does address some of the
questions that religions address and does do for people some of the things
religion does for people. So for example, I think a naturalistic world view,
including this naturalistic Buddhism, can in principle, give people a sense that
their lives have meaning. Give them moral orientation. Give them consolation in
times of sorrow. Give them equinimity as they encounter the turbulence of life.
Now, whether that means that you could call this naturalistic version of
Buddhism religious depends ultimately on how you are going to define
religion. One of the, one of the broadest definitions I've seen comes from William
James, the great American psychologist who said that the kind of animating
essence of religion is the belief that there is an unseen order. And that our
supreme good lies in harmoniously adjusting ourselves thereto. Now, Buddhism
does in a sense, say that there is an unseen order that we should adjust ourselves
to. Now it's not talking about a kind of cosmic plan. The unseen order that is
referred to, is the truth about the way things work. The truth about the structure
of reality, the truth about human beings, even the truth about yourself. According
to Buddhism, these truths often go unseen because the human mind contains
certain built-in. distortions, illusions. We don't see the word clearly. And
Buddhism certainly does assert that our supreme good lies in harmoniously
adjusting ourselves to this normally hidden truth. And in fact Buddhism lays a
path for the harmonious adjustment. it, it, it, it lays out what it considers to be
the truth about reality. It tells us what we need to do to bring our lives in line
with that reality and, the claim, the Buddhist claim is, that we can thereby relieve
our suffering even end our suffering. And in the process, align ourselves with
moral truth. At least that's the claim. That is the Buddhist claim. Is it true? Is the
Buddhist diagnosis of the human predicament, why they're are suffering
through? And the prescription for for, for the human predicament powerful and
effective? Well that's largely what this course is about. And, I hope it's not too
much of a plot spoiler to say that I do think that modern psychology is in some
respects lending support to Buddhist ideas. For example, I think psychology does
show us that the, certain deceptions, distortions, are built into the human mind,
and actually that we do suffer as a result. And I think even some of the
more radical sounding Buddhist doctrines are, are getting some support. For
example Buddhism says that there is a sense in which the self, that is the thing
that I think of as running the show, the thing inside me does not exist. In a sense. 
And I think psychology is also raising real questions about the actual nature. Of
what we think of as the self. Now, when I talk about modern psychology,  I
definitely mean to include evolutionary psychology. And that is the study of how
the human mind was shaped by natural selection and I think there is
evidence. That some of these delusions that the mind is subject to were actually
built in by natural selection for reasons we'll come to. The mind is kind of
programmed that way. But to say that something is natural, or was
engineered by natural selection, isn't to say that it's not changeable. And in fact,
part of the idea of Buddhism is to do what you might call kind of counter
programming of, of the brain.In particular through such techniques as
meditation. And kind of neutralize some of these tendencies that I would say
were built into the brain By natural selection. And in fact one thing I like about
Buddhism is the sheer audacity of it. You know, it's kind of like a rebellion
against our creator. Natural selection it, it very much wants to, wants to run in 
opposition to some of the logic by which natural selection wired the brain. Now.
Should emphasize that it's not a complete rebellion against natural
selection. Buddhism does make use of some things natural selection engrained in
us including, you know, love, compassion, rational thought, but still it's a pretty
thorough going rebellion we're talking about. Now can the, can the rebellion be
successful? I've already suggested that modern psychology lend support to, to
some of the Buddhist diagnosis of the human predicament. But what about the
prescription? Can the prescription laid out by Buddism end or greatly alleviate
human suffering. By making us see the world more clearly? Well, we're going to
be hearing from some people who say that it's worked for them. These are
people I've talked to over the last few months. But I want to emphasize that I'm
not just interested in the question of whether, whether meditation has made
them happier, made them suffer less but whether it has done that. By helping
them see the world more clearly. Whether dispelling these illusions that seem to
be built into us is the key to happiness. Now in looking at this issue we will also
be hearing from some prominent psychologists. That I've also been having
conversations with other the last few months. And we'll be looking at various
kinds of evidence. Brain scans, social psychology experiments. And we'll also be
hearing a little bit from me about my experiences with meditation. I'm not a
hardcore meditator, I don't meditate hours a day. But I do try to meditate
everyday. Perhaps more important, I have done some of these one week silent
meditation retreats, which are pretty, pretty intense. And involve a whole lot of
meditation and not much else and they can have dramatic effects on
your consciousness, and I think these have given me a glimpse of what some of
these much more serious meditators. Experience and the conclusions they reach
about how their mind is working. These retreats are really, probably the main
thing that got me interested in this whole area, and, and, and they're the reason
that I decided to research it and write about it and teach about it. At the same
time, my interest also grows out of my. Previous work in a kind of natural way.
About 20 years ago, I read a book called The Moral Animal, about evolutionary
psychology when that term, evolutionary psychology, was just starting to
circulate. And then I went to teach in a psychology department of Penn, the
University of Pennsylvania, for a while. Meanwhile, I was getting more interested
in religion. And I wrote a book called The Evolution of God about the emergence
of the Abrahamic God. And in the last few chapters of that, I addressed the
question of whether there can be a religion that is viable in the modern world,
whether you could have something you could call a religion that is fully
compatible with modern science. And now I'm kind of returning to that question
here and I'm really looking forward to to sharing what, my thinking with you and
my findings with you.