No Self, No Problem: How Neuropsychology Is Catching Up to Buddhism

by Chris Niebauer

Let's look at how being overly identified with a belief system can cause suffering. What is the major source of conflict between people? Why do we fight each other? Turn on any news channel and you can confirm the intense suffering that occurs due to opposing belief systems. People die and kill for beliefs all the time, but not just any beliefs—only the ones they believe in without recognizing that they are only beliefs. This is how the interpreter confuses actual reality with a thought-based belief, and it is simply another example of the map/territory mistake. The left-brain interpreter not only creates and maintains these assumptions of the world, but makes them feel as though they are truly how the world really is. This is very unsettling when you consider the left brain's ability to make up stories that have absolutely nothing to do with reality, as case studies have shown.