I’m finishing up Why Buddhism is True by Robert Wright. In the final chapter of the book, Wright takes a step back and over the course of several pages summarize the core tenants of the book. It’s the part of the book I’ve found the most useful thus far, and one paragraph in particular jumped out.
Beginning on page 250, Wright outlines the primary reasons why he practices mindfulness meditation. He ends up listing 5 reasons, the third of which I want to highlight.
…during my morning meditation…my mind is calm…And here is an interesting feature of a calm mind: if some issue in my life bubbles up, I’m likely to conceive of it with uncharacteristic wisdom…
Excerpt from page 252 of Why Buddhism is True by Robert Wright
That is exactly what I’m hoping to get out of mindfulness. My hope and purpose in practicing mindfulness is to calm my mind, and in so doing, improve my response to the stresses of life.
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I really enjoyed how Robert breaks through the mystic talk many mildfulness books and articles have and distills it into these concise gems. The parts where he is discussing the animal mind. How thats the default mindset that we all have and need to work to get ourselves out of that reactionary lizard brain. The struggle is real!
I’ve enjoyed it. It’s one of those books I’ll eventually read more than once. There’s a lot to think through. I did particularly find his talk about the “default mode network” to be really helpful as well.