Why Buddhism is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment

by Robert Wright

The question I’m circling around—which of our “normal” feelings, thoughts, and perceptions are in some sense illusions—is important for two reasons. One reason is simple and practical: obviously, if many unpleasant feelings—feelings of anxiety, fear, self-loathing, melancholy, and so on—are in some sense illusions, and we can use meditation to dispel them or at least weaken their grip on us, that’s news you can use. The other reason is at first glance more academic, but it ultimately has a kind of practical value as well. Figuring out when our feelings mislead us will help shed light on the question of whether the Buddhist view of the mind, and of the mind’s relationship to reality, is as crazy as it sometimes sounds. Is perceived reality, or a sizable chunk of it, really an illusion? This question takes us into depths of Buddhist philosophy that aren’t often plumbed in popular accounts of meditation. Naturally enough, these accounts tend to focus on things with a near-term payoff—stress reduction, boosting self-esteem, and so on—without getting deeply into the philosophical context in which Buddhist meditation arose and within which it has flourished. Using meditation this way, as a purely therapeutic device that doesn’t deeply change your view of reality, is a perfectly fine thing to do. It’s good for you, and it will probably be good for the world. Still, using meditation this way isn’t, by itself, taking the red pill. Taking the red pill means asking basic questions ab...