Session 71: Compassion and the Possibility of Ending Suffering in this Life

This evening we return to compassion, with a focus on how Buddhism runs against the grain of modernity in terms of its approach to suffering. We can achieve lasting and total freedom from suffering while still alive; we don’t have to wait for death to bring salvation (as in modern mainstream Christianity), or total annihilation (as in the materialistic, neurocentric view of mind). Then, following the meditation session, Alan answers questions concerning ‘settling the mind in its natural state,’ how to find the right balance between mindfulness and introspection, and how to scientifically obliterate the neurocentric view once and for all.