Tibetan and Himalayan Library - THL

Description: Tricycle magazine interviews science writer Robert Wright on evolutionary theory and its implications for Buddhist ideas of non-self, altruism, anger, and awakening. He suggests evolutionary theory construes Buddhist training, and other forms of religious practice, as a way of trying to counteract millions of years of survival oriented and self-interested behavior formed through natural selection. He talks about "cultural evolution" or "nongenetic" evolution of ideas, political institutions, cultural forms and so forth and suggests that they have a specific directionality characterized by increasing complexity and interdependence.This coevolutionary process, he says, is interesting in it means survival depends increasingly on "moral enlightenment" or extending attention to others welfare. (Zach Rowinski 2004-05-17)