Table of Contents
Illustrations
Preface Foreword by Lynn Margulis Introduction by Dorion Sagan
Buddha and Darwin Biographies
1 – The Burden of Discontent
2 – Darwin’s World
Evolutionary Change
Nature’s Order Is Hard to Pin Down..
Are Things Getting Better?
Darwin’s Suffering
3 – Disease, Old Age and Death
Not Often Seen
Predation: Gentle or Violent?
Conversation of Death
Not so Gentle
Only for Need?
Predation not Paramount
Death and Nature
Ways of Dying
Mortality Rates
Dying Young
Disease
Disability
Old Age, Sex and Death
Animal Emotions
Conclusion
4 – The Human Body
Early Humans
Mortality in the Wild
The Paleolithic
Transition to Civilization
Diseases of Civilization
Senescence
Medical Death
Discontent
Acceptance
5 – Evolution, Mind and Meditation
The Origin of Mind
Nonverbal Communication
Speech, Consciousness and Thought
Meditation
The Brain and the Mind
Neurophysiology and Meditation
6 – Emotions, Dreams and Insights
Concentration
The Limits of Meditation
Dreaming
Insight
Observation
7 – Attention and Wisdom
Hunter-gatherers
Hunter-gatherer Attention
Historiography
Hunter-gatherer Emotions
Prehistoric Wisdom
Non-harming and Nature
Impact on the Environment
Conclusion
8 – Civilization’s Discontent
Transition to Civilization
The Modern World
The Mind as Tool
Stimulation and Fantasy
9 – Silence
10 – Postscript: The Lama and the MRI
Acknowledgements
Glossary
Bibliography
Endnotes