Why Buddhism is True

The New York Times Bestseller 'Sublime' New Yorker 'Provocative' New York Times Book Review 'Illuminating' Washington Post * At the heart of Buddhism is a simple claim: The reason we suffer – and the reason we make other people suffer – is that we don't see the world clearly. At the heart of Buddhist meditative practice is a radical promise: We can learn to see the world, including ourselves, more clearly, and so gain a deep and morally valid happiness. In this pathbreaking book, Robert Wright shows how taking this promise seriously can change your life – how it can loosen the grip of anxiety, regret and hatred, and how it can deepen your appreciation of beauty and of other people. He also shows why this transformation works. Drawing on the latest in neuroscience and psychology, and armed with an acute understanding of human evolution, Wright explains why the path toward truth and the path toward happiness are one and the same.

Robert Wright is the New York Times bestselling author of The Evolution of God (a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize), Nonzero, The Moral Animal, Three Scientists and their Gods (a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award), and Why Buddhism Is True. He is the cofounder and editor-in-chief of the widely respected Bloggingheads.tv and MeaningofLife.tv. He has written for The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The New York Times, Time, Slate, and The New Republic. He has taught at the University of Pennsylvania and at Princeton University, where he also created the popular online course “Buddhism and Modern Psychology.” He is currently Visiting Professor of Science and Religion at Union Theological Seminary in New York.