Sapiens—A Brief History of Humankind

Author: Yuval Noah Harari
Publisher: Vintage 2014

Mr. Naleendra Weerapitiya has written an excellent review of this book.  

(See https://me-and-err.blogspot.com/search?q=sapiens) 

Those who seek to get a general idea about this book should read Naleendra’s review.  My aim is to provide a summary of Harari’s interpretation of Buddha Dhamma.  I freely picked passages from the book with occasional adjustments.

Buddha’s insight was that no matter what the mind experiences, it usually reacts with craving, and craving always involves dissatisfaction.  When mind experiences something distasteful it craves to be rid of the irritation.  When the mind experiences something pleasant, it craves that the pleasure will remain and will intensify.  Therefore, the mind is always dissatisfied and restless.  Hence even the greatest kings are doomed to live in angst, constantly fleeing grief and anguish, forever chasing after greater pleasures.

Buddha found that there was a way to exit this vicious cycle.  If, when the mind experiences something pleasant or unpleasant, it simply understands things as they are, then there is no suffering.  If you experience sadness without craving that the sadness go away, you continue to feel sadness but you do not suffer from it.  There can actually be richness in the sadness.  If you experience joy without craving that the joy linger and intensify, you continue to feel joy without loosing your peace of mind.

But How do you get the mind to accept things as they are, without craving?  Buddha developed a set of meditation techniques that train the mind to experience reality as it is, without craving.  These practices train the mind to focus all its attention on the question “What am I experiencing now?” rather than what would I rather be experiencing?”  It is difficult to achieve this state of mind, but not impossible.

Buddha grounded these meditation techniques in a set of ethical rules meant to make it easier for people to focus on actual experience and to avoid falling into cravings and fantasies.  When the cravings are completely extinguished, the mind reaches a state of perfect containment and serenity, known as nirvana.  Those who attain nirvana experience the reality with utmost clarity, free of fantasies and delusions.  While they will most likely still encounter unpleasantness and pain, such experiences cause them no misery.  A person who does not crave cannot suffer.  

In the next to last chapter titled “And They Lived Happily ever after” Harari examines the current state of “happiness”.   

Buddhism has assigned the question of happiness more importance than perhaps any other human creed.  For 2,500 years Buddhists have systematically studied the essence and causes of happiness, which is why there is growing interest among the scientific community both in their philosophy and their meditation practices.  In meditation, you are supposed to closely observe your mind and your body, witness the ceaseless arising and passing of all your feelings, and realize how pointless it is to pursue them.  When the pursuit stops, the mind becomes very relaxed, clear and satisfied.  All kinds of feelings go on arising and passing—joy, anger, boredom, lust—but once you stop craving particular feelings, you can just accept them for what they are.  You live in the present moment instead of fantasizing about what might have been.

This idea is so alien to modern liberal culture that when the Western New Age movements encounter Buddhists insights, they translate them into liberal terms, thereby turning them in their head.  New Age cults frequently argue: ‘Happiness does not depend on external conditions.  It only depend on what we feel inside.  People should stop pursuing external achievements such as wealth and status , and connect instead with their inner feelings.  This is what the biologists argue, but more or less opposite of what Buddha said.

Buddha agreed with biologists and the New Age movements the happiness is independent of external conditions.  Yet his more important and far more profound insight was that the true happiness is also independent of our inner feelings.  Indeed, the more significance we give our inner feelings, the more we crave them, and the more we suffer.  Buddha’s recommendation was not only the pursuit of external achievements, but also the pursuit of inner feelings.

Harari has looked at the human history systematically and logically in this book.  For this reason alone, this is a must read book and it should be in every household library, at least as a reference book.