Darwin Meets the Buddha: Human Nature, Buddha Nature, Wild Nature

by Paul A. Keddy

Did you hear? Charles Darwin has invited Siddhartha Gautama to hike the Appalachian Trail through the Great Smoky Mountains. What stories will they share? What advice might they offer for living in modern times? What might they say about solving global environmental crises? Some they begin with the nature of human dissatisfaction. And how humans form social hierarchies with rulers. The nature of memory. And even desire for meat. They also talk about birdwatchers, matchmakers, sex, tyrants, lobsters, peacocks, Stalin, the French Revolution, and, yes, even giant ground sloths. Enlightenment, too. So, pick up your backpack, and join the adventure. CONTENTS Introduction The Men and Their Theories 1. Craving for Desire, Dissatisfaction, and Suffering 2. Living an Mind as Cocoon 3. The Primate The Origin of Self 4. Selective Maintaining the Illusion 5. The Urge to Priests, Kings, and Dominance Hierarchies 6. Killing Minds and Killing Interference, Competition, and Aggression 7. Insatiable When Big Brains Meet Big Animals 8. Getting An Ecological View of Compassion 9. A Brief History of Co-operation and Community 10. Meditation in Seeing Through the Simulation 11. Enlightened The Evolutionary Imperative Acknowledgments How to Start Now Further Reading Figure Credits Index

242 pages, Paperback

Published January 20, 2020

Reviews

[Angela]

Disclaimer: Do not read this book if you are a Creationist.

I am not a Creationist. I had difficulty finding a reading flow with this didactic book. I like the title, which is very enticing, a great one, and why I bought this book, but the content is not up to par.

The concept of hiking with Darwin and Buddha I found distracting, not complementary to the content. The thread kept coming and going and had a weak role in the overall narrative.

Although I am in line with this writer’s opinions and observations, I felt this book was created as his personal thought-justification diary, like an overflow of the thoughts we all have toward environmental, health, political systems, and out of control egos. This author just published his complaints with a lot of science thrown in.

Some greater knowledge of ecological systems like biological watershed services, basic ecology, evapotranspiration, photosynthesis, and oceanic evolution will help the reader with comprehending the environmental parallels. Also know some philosophy and history.

The main point of the book comes on page 127, chapter 7, on the topic of species(ism).

Good section on Land Trusts and continually mentioning their positive benefits.

Overall, I did not get much out of the meditation/spiritual portion of this book. Why not the title, “The Buddha meets Darwin?” After all, Buddha came first.

My edition has typos: Editor/Author please take note.
p33 line35 ‘begin’ should be ‘being’
p48 line23 omit the word ‘a’ in the sentence, “it is a merely a useful and attention-grabbing symbol…”
p161 line33 the word ‘a’ least, should be ‘at’ least

[John Traphagan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fascinating book that covers a great deal of territory related to ideas of Darwinian evolution and Buddhism. It presents a powerful perspective on the world, and on our current environmental crisis, by a scientist and Buddhist who has thought deeply about how these worldviews interconnect. Well worth the read.