Nirvana as Living Experience

Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; Prof. Lily de Silva, Nibbana As Living Experience, Buddhist Publication Society (Wheel No. 407/408); news inserts by CC Liu

Monastic robe, Songkhla, Thailand (Homam Alojail/flickr/Bird_beckham77/500px.com)

 

Prof. Lily de Silva approaches the age-old question "What is nirvana?" from a fresh angle: “What does the attainment mean in terms of the living experience of one who has reached the ultimate goal?” She discovers in the Pali texts four outstanding attributes of this experience. It is spiritual freedom to be experience here and now. In a second essay she examines the two types of individuals who have realized the ultimate goal, the Buddha and arhat disciples, distinguished by the breadth of knowledge but experiencing the same nirvana and liberation. She is Professor Emeritus of Pali and Buddhism at the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka and a frequent contributor to scholarly and popular journals as well as the editor of the Pali Text Society's "Long Discourses of the Buddha" (Digha Nikaya).

 

Nirvana is freedom for those who practice

Nirvana (Pali nibbana) is the culmination of the Buddhist quest for perfection and happiness. 

In order to understand the meaning of this term it is useful to refer to the verse attributed to Kisa Gotami when she saw Prince Siddhartha returning to the palace from the park on the eve of his great renunciation.

She declared: Nibbuta nuna sa mata, nibbuto nuna so pita, Nibbuta nuna sa nari, yassayam Idiso pati [Note 1]. “Happy (contented/peaceful), indeed, is the mother (who has such a son); happy, indeed, is the father (who has such a son); happy, indeed, is the woman who has such a one as her husband.”

 

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Nibbuta (from nir + v) is often treated as the past participle of the verb nibbayati, and nibbana is the nominal form of that verb.

It means happiness, contentment, and peace. Nibbayati also means to extinguish, to blow out -- metaphorically, as in the blowing out of a lamp [2]. Nirvana is so called because it is the blowing out of the fires of greed, hatred, and delusion [3].

When these metaphorical fires are blown out, peace is attained. One becomes completely cooled (sitibhuta) [4]. 

It is sometimes conjectured that nirvana is called "cool" because the Buddha preached in a hot and humid country, where cool was appreciated as being much more comfortable. Had he taught in a cold and bitter climate, nirvana might have been described in terms of warmth.

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But it is certain that the term “cool” was chosen to convey a literal psychological reality [5]. Anger makes us hot and restless. We use expressions such as “boiling with anger,” clearly expressing the intensity of aggressive emotion.

When such negative emotions are completely uprooted never to arise again, one's temperament must be described as cool. Nirvana is a state to be attained here and now in this very life [6] not a state to be attained after death.

 

In terms of living experience, nirvana can be characterized by four special attributes: 

1. happiness
2. perfection of virtue
3. realization
4. freedom. 

Happiness

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Looking at these one by one, nirvana is described as the highest happiness, the supreme state of bliss [7]. Those who have attained nirvana live in utter bliss, free from hatred and mental illness among those who are hateful and mentally ill [8].  

Sukha in Pali, being the opposite of dukkha (disappointment, suffering, unsatisfactoriness) denotes both happiness and pleasure. In English, happiness denotes more a sense of mental ease and well being, whereas pleasure denotes physical excitement (pleasant agitation, arousal).

The Pali word sukha extends to both these aspects, and it is [2] certain (as shown below) that mental and physical bliss is experienced by one experiencing nirvana. The experience of supersensual yet physical bliss for limited periods is possible even before the attainment of nirvana through the practice of the meditative absorption (jhana, samadhi).

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The "Fruits of Recluseship" discourse (Samaññaphala Sutta) describes these physical experiences with the help of eloquent similes [9]. When bath powder and water are kneaded into a neat wet ball, the moisture touches every part of the ball but does not ooze out. Similarly, the body of the adept in the first absorption is suffused and drenched with joy and pleasure born of detachment from sense pleasures (viveka-jam piti-sukham). 

The experience in the second absorption is also elucidated: When a deep pool is filled to the brim with clear cool water fed by underground springs, its waters do not overflow, and no part of the pool remains untouched by the cool. Similarly, joy and pleasure born of concentration in the second absorption pervade the body of the meditator. 

 

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The simile for the third absorption is that of a lotus born in water, grown up in water, fully submerged in water, drawing nourishment from water, with no part of it remaining untouched by water. In the same way, happiness/pleasure permeates, suffuses, and drenches the entire body of the adept in the third absorption.

These are the experiences of supersensual pleasure even before the attainment of nirvana. On attainment, more refined supersensual pleasure is permanently established. The "Discourse to Chunky" (Canki Sutta) specifically states that when a monastic realizes the ultimate truth, one experiences that truth “with the body” [10].

Regarding the experience of the arhat, the oldest discourses (Sutta Nipata) state that by the undoing of all feelings/sensations [through insight], one lives desireless and at peace [11].

  

I see you made an effort (Gurwitch)

Once Sariputra, the Buddha's chief male disciple foremost in wisdom (counterpart to the nun Khema), was asked what happiness there can be when there is no feeling/sensation [12]. He explained that the absence of feeling/sensation itself is happiness (contentment/peace/ease) [13].

It is relevant to note here that the Buddha states that he does not speak of happiness only with reference to pleasant feelings/sensations. Wherever there is happiness and pleasure, he recognizes that as happiness and pleasure [14]. More

• NOTES: (1) J I 60. (2) Nibbanti dhira yathayam padipo: Sn 235. (3) S IV 19. (4) Sn 542, 642. (5) A I 138, III 435. (6) D I 156, 167. 18 (7) Nibbanam paramam sukham: Dh 203. (8) Susukham vata jivama verinesu averino/aturesu anatura: Dh 197-99. (9) D I 74. (10) Kayena c’eva paramasaccam sacchikaroti: M II 173. (11) Vedananam khaya bhikkhu nicchato parinibbuto: Sn 739. (12) Kim pan’ettha n’atthi vedayitan ti: A IV 415. (13) Etad eva khv’ettha sukham yad ettha n’atthi vedayitam. (14) S IV 228.

The Buddha's chief disciple was black

Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly; Hellmuth Hecker, Maha-Moggallana, The Wheel Publication No. 263/264 (Buddhist Publication Society), German original Wissen und Wandel (magazine, XXII, 9/10), Bradford Griffith and Robert Bussewitz (transcribers) DharmaNet

The Buddha and his black chief male disciple, diverse representations (Wisdom Quarterly)

   

The Buddha may have had as many as 80,000 monastic human disciples (savakas, "hearers") during his 45 years of teaching with countless more devas who were able to attain liberating insight. But he only singled out four "chief disciples," two monks (Great Moggallāna and Sariputra) and two nuns (Uppalavanna and Khema). Great Moggallana had very dark black skin described as being the "color of a rain cloud." He was not African, of course, but Dravidian, from a wealthy and privileged Brahmin family in ancient north India. He may have been Indo-Ariyan nevertheless with very dark skin, usually depicted as blue as is customary in India. It is explained in Sri Lankan commentaries as being due to the residual effects of weighty past karma. But whatever the case, he was joyfully welcomed by the Buddha, ordained, and immediately singled out as a chief disciple. His special ability was helping bring new monks to full enlightenment after the Buddha attracted them to the Dharma and Sariputra aided them to stream entry (the first stage of enlightenment). Presumably, Upalavanna and Khema helped the Buddha in the same way with nuns. Great Moggallana was also singled out as "foremost in psychic powers." There are many stories of his putting them to good use, which is interesting because the Buddha -- who also possessed great supernormal abilities -- saw danger in them and normally discouraged their display.

 

3. Finding the Teaching

Without knowing anything of the Buddha, Great Moggallana (born as Kolita) and Sariputra (born as Upatissa) gave up their life as wandering ascetics and, after many years, returned to their home country of Magadha. This happened not long after the Buddha had delivered his first sutra setting in motion the Wheel of the Dharma at Benares (Varanasi, India).
 
But the two friends still had not given up hope, and they decided now to search separately, for doubling their chances. They agreed among themselves that if one first learned about a convincing path to liberation (the deathless, nirvana), he would quickly inform the other.
 

Black Ven. Sivali (109060883@N02/flickr)

At that time, when both were about 40 years old, the Buddha had sent out the first batch of enlightened missionary disciples, 61 in number, to proclaim the Teaching (Dharma) for the well-being and happiness of humans and devas. The Buddha himself had gone to Rajagaha, the capital of Magadha, where the great king of Magadha soon became his follower and donated the Bamboo Grove Monastery (Jetavana). At that monastery the Buddha was residing when Kolita and Upatissa returned to Rajagaha, staying at their teacher Sanjaya's place.

One day Upatissa went to town while Kolita stayed back at their dwelling. Kolita saw his friend returning. Never had he seen him like that: his entire being seemed to be transformed, his appearance was buoyant and radiant. Eagerly Kolita asked him:

"Your features are serene, dear friend, and your complexion is bright and clear. Did it happen that you have found the road to enlightenement, the path to liberation from all suffering?"
 
Upatissa replied: "It is so, dear friend, the path to the deathless has been found!" He then reported how it happened....
 

Of things arisen from conditions

the Wayfarer the condition told

and what is their cessation,

that, too, the Great Ascetic proclaimed.

 
When Upatissa heard this stanza, the vision of Truth (the "Dharma-eye") arose in him on the spot, and the very same happened to Kolita when he listened to the stanza retold by his friend. He, too, realized: Whatever arises is bound to pass away.

The realization that was evoked by this stanza, may be called a truly mystical event. For us, these four lines do not contain an explanation explicit enough for a full understanding. The deeper and wider meaning of the stanza reveals itself only to those who have trained themselves [and can discern the Four Noble Truths in it] for a long time in wisdom and renunciation and have reflected long upon the impermanent and thed eathless, the conditioned and the unconditioned.....
  
After Kolita listened to that powerful stanza, he asked at once where the Great Ascetic, the Perfected One, the Buddha was staying. Hearing that he was dwelling nearby at the Bamboo Grove Monastery, he wished to go there immediately....

4. The Struggle for Realization

The Buddha teaching monastic disciples, bas relief, Songkla, Thailand, rooftop pyramid

 
Now the two friends, at the head of the 250 fellow ascetics, approached the Bamboo Grove. There the Buddha was just teaching Dharma to his disciples. And when he saw the two friends approaching, the Enlightened One said: "Here, disciples, they are coming, the two friends Kolita and Upatissa. They will be my chief (male) disciples, a blessed pair!"

Having arrived, all respectfully saluted the Buddha, raising their folded palms to the forehead and bowing at the feet of the meditation Master. Then the two friends spoke: "May we be permitted, O venerable sir, to obtain under the Blessed One the going-forth and the full admission?"

Then the Blessed One responded: "Come, monks! Well proclaimed is the Teaching. Live now the life of purity for making an end of suffering!" These brief words served to bestow ordination on the two friends and their following.
 

From then on Upatissa was called Sariputta ("the son of Sari," his mother) and Kolita was called Maha-Moggallana ("the Great One of the Moggallana clan") to distinguish him from other Buddhist monks from that same clan.

 

After all of them had obtained ordination, the Buddha addressed the 250 disciples and explained to them the Teaching in such a way that before long they attained to the first stage of enlightenment, stream-entry, and in due course became fully enlightened. Sariputra and Great Moggallana, however, went into solitude, but this time separate from each other.

 

Sariputta remained in the vicinity of Rajagaha and went to meditate in a cave called "Bear's Den." From there he walked to the city for his alms, which afforded him the opportunity to listen often to the Buddha's discourses. What he had heard he independently worked over on his own and methodically penetrated to a clear understanding of the mind and its laws. He needed 14 days to reach full enlightenment, the utter destruction of all defilement (asavas).

 

Great Moggallana, however, for reasons not known to us, chose as his abode the forests near the village of Kallavalaputta in Magadha. With great zeal, he meditated there while sitting or walking up and down. But in these efforts, he was often overcome by sleepiness. Though he did not wish to fall asleep, he was unable to keep his body erect and his head upright. There were times when he had to keep his eyes open even by force of will.

The tropical heat, the strain of long years of a wandering life, and the inner tensions he had gone through perhaps explain how now, at the end of his quest, his body reacted with fatigue.

 

But the Awakened One, with a great teacher's care for his disciples, did not lose sight of him. With his supernormal vision he perceived the difficulties of the new monk, and by magic power he appeared before him. When Moggallana saw the Buddha standing before him, a good part of his fatigue had already vanished. Now the Awakened One asked him:

"Are you nodding, Moggallana, are you nodding?"

  

"Yes, venerable sir."

1. "Well then, Moggallana, at whatever thought drowsiness befalls you, to that thought you should not give attention and not dwell on that thought. Then, by doing so, it is possible that your drowsiness will vanish. (The Buddha gave many more step-by-step instructions for staying awake). More 

"Nay, not for this that you may slumber long,

Comes the night, in starry garlands wreathed.

For vigils by the wise this night is here." 

— Theragatha, Verse 193 (trans. by C.A.F. Rhys Davids)

The Four Perversions

Amber Larson and Dhr. Seven, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; BPS.lk; Ven. Nyanatiloka Mahathera, Buddhist Dictionary: Manual of Buddhist Terms and Doctrines (vipallāsa)

To see things as they are NOT is distorted delusion springing from ignorance. To see reality just AS IT IS is enlightenment springing from having rightly cultivated liberating-wisdom.

 

''There are four perversions or distortions (vipallāsa), which may be either of perception, consciousness, or of views. What are these four distortions? They are to regard:

1. what is actually impermanent as permanent,
   
2. what is actually unpleasant as pleasant (capable of yielding lasting happiness),
   
3. what is actually without a self as a self,
   
4. what is actually foul (ugly) as beautiful" (AN.IV.49).

• See Manual of Insight (Ledi Sayadaw, Wheel 31/32, p.5).

We don't have that in Iceland (Bjork)

According to the Path of Purification, the following perversions are eliminated by the first path-knowledge (stream entry, the first stage of enlightenment): the perversions of perception, consciousness, and views that the impermanent is permanent or that what is not a self is a self, and furthermore the perversion of views that the unpleasant is pleasant and that the foul is beautiful.

 

By the third path-knowledge (non-returning) are eliminated the perversions of perception and consciousness that the foul is beautiful.

 

By the fourth path-knowledge (full enlightenment) are eliminated the perversions of perception and consciousness that the unpleasant is pleasant (Vis.M. XXII, 68).

Buddhist Meditation and Psychology

Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly; Douglas Burns, Buddhism and Depth Psychology (BPS.lk)

In Buddhism, "mind" and "heart" use the same term, citta, and the "mind door" is in the area of the physical heart rather than the skull (Thimphu, Bhutan/SoulTravelers3.com)

  

(psychologyandtheother.com)

...If the cause of suffering (dukkha, "disappointment") is primarily psychological, then it must follow that the cure, also, is psychological. Therefore, we find in Buddhism a series of "mental exercises" or meditations designed to uncover and heal our psychic aberrations.

 

Mistakenly, Buddhist (insight-) meditation is frequently confused with yogic meditation, which includes physical contortions, autohypnosis, quests for occult powers, and an attempted union with GOD [Brahman]. None of these are concerns or practices of the Noble Eightfold Path. 

 

There are in [original*] Buddhism no drugs or stimulants, no secret teachings, and no mystical formulae. Buddhist (insight) meditation deals exclusively with the everyday phenomena of human consciousness. In the words of Ven. Nyanaponika Thera, a renowned Western Buddhist scholar-monk:

In its spirit of self-reliance, Satipatthana [the setting up of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness] does not require any elaborate technique or external devices. The daily life is its working material. It has nothing to do with any exotic cults or rites nor does it confer "initiations" or "esoteric knowledge" in any way other than by self-enlightenment. Using just the conditions of life it finds, Satipatthana does not require complete seclusion or monastic life, though in some who undertake the practice, the desire and need for these may grow (The Heart of Buddhist Meditation, Nyanaponika Thera, London: Rider & Co. 1962, p. 82).

Unless the reader suspects that some peculiarity of the "Western mind" precludes Westerners from the successful practice of meditation, note also the words of Rear Admiral E.H. Shattock, a British naval officer, who once spent three weeks of diligent meditation practice in a Theravada monastery near Rangoon, Burma:

Meditation, therefore, is a really practical occupation: it is in no sense necessarily a religious one, though it is usually thought of as such. It is itself basically academic, practical, and profitable. It is, I think, necessary to emphasize this point, because so many only associate meditation with holy or saintly people, and regard it as an advanced form of the pious life... This is not the tale of a conversion, but of an attempt to test the reaction of a well-tried Eastern system on a typical Western mind (An Experiment in Mindfulness, E.H. Shattock, New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1960, pp. 17-19).

The Buddha in the Golden Triangle (Ursula in Aus/Ursula_bkk/flickr.com)

  

Reading about meditation is like reading about swimming; only by getting into the water does the aspiring swimmer begin to progress. So it is with meditation and Buddhism in general. The Dharma must be lived, not merely thought. Study and contemplation are valuable tools, but life itself is the training ground.

 

Using words

The following passages are attempts to put into words what must be experienced within oneself. Or in the words of the Dhammapada: "Buddhas only point the way. Each one must work out one's own salvation with diligence."

Meditation is a personal experience, a subjective experience, and consequently each of us must tread our own path towards the summit of enlightenment. By words we can instruct and encourage, but words are only symbols for reality. More

*"Original" Buddhism?

Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly (COMMENTARY)

(meditationgold.com)

After the original dispensation (sasana) was set up by the historical Buddha, the Dharma he set rolling began to be conflated with the indigenous Brahmanism of his day. It eventually swallowed Buddhism, calling the Buddha an incarnation (avatar) of the god Vishnu, and making the Buddha's contrary message part of orthodox Hinduism. Adi Shankara is responsible for throwing Buddhism out of India with the idea of promoting the "eternal teachings" (Sanatan Dharma) free of foreign influence. The Buddha was a foreigner from the northwest frontier. Although the Buddha rejected the authority of the sacred Brahminical Vedas, modern Vedantic-Hindus and Mahayana-Buddhists ignore the differences and blend the two traditions. While this departs from the original message of the Buddha, teaching the same thing with new names gives Buddhism a longer history, elevates Sanskrit above Pali, Prakrit, and Magadhi, and loses sight of what the Buddha felt was indispensable for actual enlightenment (bodhi) and final-liberation (moksha), which he called "nirvana" to distinguish this Path's goal from the goal of the ancient Brahmins. For them "the end of rebirth and suffering" is "rebirth in Brahma's eternal heaven." The Buddha rejected this, pointing out that it was not permanent but changing just like all planes of rebirth. The key difference between Brahmanism (Hinduism) and Buddhism regards the soul or self (atta, atman). Until one penetrates anatta, the impersonal or not-self nature of all things, one will not enter the first stage of Buddhist enlightenment called stream entry. Therefore, there will be no actual liberation but only continued wandering on in samsara, the Wheel of Life and Death, through heavens, hells, and other realms.

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ZEN: emotions, Don Quixote, intuition (video)

Amber Larson and Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly; Dr. Elizabeth Ashby, "Three Mental Faculties" (Buddhist Publication Society, Bodhi Leaves No. 44)
(RD) With Thurston Howell III as "Mr. Magoo" as Don Quixote de la Mancha as a US cartoon

 

Toyokan Museum (Stuart Rankin)

The Zen School in particular stresses the importance of intuition. A great feature of Zen is to accept life as it comes and to make the appropriate response. Note, it is the appropriate or right response. This does not mean acting on the first impulse that comes into one’s head.

Most human impulses arise from greed, hate/fear (aversion), or delusion [the three roots of all unprofitable karma], and it is only the trained disciple who can act both spontaneously and rightly every time. Impulsive action frequently ends in disaster, as in the case of Don Quixote.

A Western writer has said that Don Quixote is “Zen incarnate.” This is a sad travesty of the facts as recorded in that glorious [Spanish] fiction. The author Cervantes has drawn the picture of a very courageous and idealistic gentleman (Hidalgo, a man of good family), whose intellect had been vitiated by a prolonged course of sensational fiction.

He believed the romances of chivalry to be true histories, and he thought it was his destiny to sally forth as a knight-errant, in order to right wrongs and relieve the oppressed.

No one doubts his high motives, but as he was completely lacking in judgment he committed innumerable follies, whereby he not only suffered himself, but also brought trouble on other people.

He believed that in the practice of his calling a knight-errant was above good and evil. Hence he bilked an innkeeper and, in order to obtain the supposed “helmet of Mambrino,” committed a bare-faced highway robbery.

On another occasion he imagined that a flock of sheep was a hostile army, and dashing into the middle of it, he killed seven of the creatures before the shepherd could beat him away. He was then severely cudgelled, and Sancho Panza, the loyal peasant who served him as squire, was also badly mauled. 

This unbalanced behaviour was typical of the poor deluded man; when he scented adventure he never waited to ascertain the facts but at once issued an arrogant challenge to the supposed aggressor, with the result that he was at once attacked and beaten up.

The pitiful thing was that the knight really had a very good intellect. Judged by the standards of his time, he was a man of considerable culture; he could read and speak Italian, and also knew some Arabic. He could converse sensibly and even eloquently upon most subjects; it was only when chivalry was mentioned that he “slid off into madness.”

Part 2/2 of silly Mr. Magoo's Don Quixote for kids of all ages

His monomania was such that he never attributed his misfortune to his own stupidity, but believed they were the work of a malign enchanter who had a grudge against all knights errant. If anybody questioned the validity of his opinions he fell into a fury, drew his sword, and at once became the centre of an unseemly brawl. This may be “living by Zen” (which is open to doubt); it is certainly shockingly bad Buddhism.
 
If, as postulated, Don Quixote were “Zen incarnate,” why doesn't the story end with some kind of apotheosis equivalent to satori [epiphany in Zen parlance]? Instead the knight -- we call him so though even his knighthood was spurious, having been conferred upon him for a joke by a village innkeeper -- is overthrown by a bogus knight-errant, a young man from his own village, a graduate of Salamanca, newly down from the university, who with the connivance of Don Quixote’s good friends, the priest and the barber, had gone out to bring the wanderer home.

The knight creeps back to die of a broken heart, first making a pathetic recantation of his follies.

It is begging the question to say that Cervantes did not know his business. His object was to ridicule the books of chivalry, because they were silly in content and usually bad as literature.

WARNING: Nudity! (New Atlantis) Don Quijote of the Jungle (Sydney

Possuelo, Dept. of Tribes Unknown), preserving Brazil's Amazonians

 
He did this supremely well, and incidentally produced one of the most tragic stories ever penned -- the ruin of a noble mind.

This long digression is not an attack upon Zen. Zen is so great and so venerable that its position is unassailable. But Don Quixote is a warning against the assumption that spontaneous action is necessarily right action. It is frequently just the reverse.

 
That practical conclusions can be drawn? First we should remember that the Noble Eightfold Path is a discipline. The second “step” is a combination of right intention and right thought. To achieve this, mental culture is needed. This is the function of the intellect guided by intelligence.

 

Smile  with clarity (smiledesigners.co.in)

“Mental clarity” is one of the phenomena (dhammas) listed as occurring in good (kusala) consciousness. It is essential for the practice of the Four Right Efforts, that is, to (1) recognize unskilled mental states, and not only to (2) “send them to their ceasing,” but also to (3) discourage them from arising in the future; then to (4) encourage the arising of healthy mental states and to strengthen them when they have arisen.

It is a commonplace that intellect can be strengthened by use. Some of its dangers have already been pointed out; another danger is that it enjoys diversity. It is always playing with ideas and forming concepts. It therefore encourages dualism and is obsessed with “the ten thousand things,” so that it never sees them in their “such-ness” [just as they are]. It is the function of intuitive wisdom to actually experience “suchness.”

 
According to the Western scholar-monk Ven. Nyanaponika Thera (The Power of Mindfulness, BPS.lk, Wheel No. 121-122), intuition can also be cultivated.” A careful and frequent study of this will benefit us all.

Moral Tribes (forum)

Why can't we come together on global warming? Should the rich pay higher taxes? Or should they help desperate strangers on the other side of the world? Does everyone have the right to marry? Does someone with an unwanted pregnancy have a right to choose? Is it right to kill and eat animals because we want to? On Thursday, Nov. 14, 2013, explore how we make decisions about such questions as KPCC's science reporter Sanden Totten speaks with guest Dr. Joshua Greene, director of Harvard University's Moral Cognition Lab and author of Moral Tribes: Emotion, Reason, and the Gap Between Us and Them. Through a "Me vs. Us" and "Us vs. Them" lens, Dr. Greene takes a penetrating and unique look at the ways in which neuroscience and evolution guide our moral decision-making process. In the tradition of Daniel Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow... More