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FACE TO FACE | EASTERN HORIZON 17

psychology? And, since it gets special connection between these two things.
emphasis in the book, it might be helpful
if you can explain what evolutionary How so?
psychology is.
Well, for instance, there’s the Buddhist
Evolutionary psychology is the study of how idea that one reason we suffer is that we
the human mind came to be the way it is as a don’t really see and live in accordance with
result of natural selection. In writing my book the reality of impermanence. For example,
about evolutionary psychology, The Moral we don’t recognize that gratification is

Animal, I became convinced of two things: impermanent. The happiness we get upon
that the mind was not designed to see the attaining some goal—eating some food,
world clearly and that we weren’t designed having sex, or whatever—tends to evaporate
to be happy. Yes, in some cases, the mind fairly quickly. Evolutionary psychology, I
does a good job of perceiving the everyday think, gives us a pretty plausible explanation
world, but that was not the bottom-line of why this happens: if it didn’t, then animals
criterion of natural selection. The bottom- wouldn’t keep pursuing their goals of eating
line criterion in natural selection is to favor and having more sex. And, of course, those are
traits that do a good job of getting genes into things that are part of getting genes into the
the next generation. And if having illusions next generation.
about yourself or other people will help get
genes into the next generation, then natural In other words, suffering is conducive to
selection will favor a tendency toward genetic proliferation and so suffering is built
illusion. This has an obvious connection to into us. From this perspective, it makes sense
Buddhism, since Buddhism holds that we that we would be engineered to focus more on
indeed tend to suffer from illusion unless we the gratification that reaching a given goal is
work to dispel it. going to bring rather than on the fact that the
gratification is going to evaporate and leave us
The other takeaway from evolutionary restless and unhappy afterwards.
psychology, that we weren’t designed to
be happy, also has a clear connection to This kind of suffering is very subtly and
Buddhism. We were designed to have deeply built into us.
recurring dissatisfaction with the state of
things and to suffer in specific ways because Would you say that all dukkha or suffering
emotions like fear, sadness, and anxiety can can be attributed to natural selection?
help us get our genes into the next generation.
For example, being anxious about our social I would say all suffering is the result of
standing seems to have been favored by natural selection only if you include things
natural selection because being held in high that are the result of natural selection in a
esteem was correlated, during evolution, with very indirect way. A certain amount of the
getting genes into the next generation. suffering we experience was not “intended”
by natural selection. (Whenever I personify
Finally, I would say that not only does natural selection by saying it designs
evolutionary psychology corroborate the things or intends things, I, of course, have
Buddhist ideas that we suffer and that we to use quotes because it’s not a conscious
tend to not see the world clearly; I think it process.) In the modern environment, we
also supports the Buddhist idea that there’s a encounter situations that were not part of