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 hints: 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 Resources: Desire, Dissatisfaction, and Suffering

2. Living an Illusion: Mind as Cocoon

3. The Primate Prison: The Origin of Self

4. Selective Memory: Maintaining the Illusion

5. The Urge to Impress: Priests, Kings, and Dominance Hierarchies

6. Killing Minds and Killing Fields: Interference, Competition, and Aggression

7. Insatiable Consumption: When Big Brains Meet Big Animals

8. Getting Along: An Ecological View of Compassion

9. A Brief History of Life: Co-operation and Community

10. Meditation in Action: Seeing Through the Simulation

11. Enlightened Society: The Evolutionary Imperative

Acknowledgments

Appendix: How to Start Now

Further Reading

Figure Credits

Index