No abstract given. Here are the first relevant paragraphs:
A fundamental question about humans is simply this: why are we so different from other primates, especially the nonhuman great apes or hominids? If we adopt an evolutionary perspective and consider a very long-term view of history, the great apes—chimpanzees, bonobos, orangutans, and gorillas—are our not-so-distant relatives, yet in many of our abilities we humans far exceed them. Some of the latest scientific research in multiple disciplines suggests that the difference lies in a fundamental capacity for a behavior that many primates exhibit but only humans have brought to its highest level: the ability to cooperate.[1] None of our near relatives in the primate world can cooperate in the way that we can, and among the various capacities required for the heightened level of cooperation that humans exhibit, perhaps the most important is the ability to work toward a common goal by connecting to others, in part by extending our sense of self into a broader social group that shares that objective. When that goal is understood to be the universal human aim of relieving suffering and achieving authentic happiness, Śāntideva's Guide to Bodhisattva Practice (Bodhicaryāvatāra, hereafter Guide) becomes highly relevant to these scientific considerations, especially in terms of approaches to cultivating compassion. Likewise, the science of human cooperation and its evolutionary development illuminates certain aspects of Śāntideva's approach to developing compassion.
While various interpretations of Śāntideva's method for cultivating compassion exist, the one proposed here differs from some of the more recent scholarly interpretations.[2] Inspired in part by certain strands of the scientific literature on the evolution of cooperative cognition, I argue that Śāntideva assumes that his audience has an innate capacity for compassion that is inhibited by a self-other distinction that involves a false sense of self. Thus, enhancing compassion for others is not a matter of increasing one's feelings of love, warmth, or care for others; indeed, Śāntideva almost entirely avoids any such "warm fuzzy" language. Nor does compassionate connection with others result from being convinced by an argument that this is the only rational way to behave. Instead, for Śāntideva the cultivation of compassion in relatively inexperienced practitioners is a matter of disrupting the cognitive models that inhibit their innate capacity to sense and respond to all suffering, including the suffering of others. As we will see, this interpretation helps to resolve some puzzling issues in the Guide and points to some practical implications for further research on the cultivation of compassion. (Dunne, introductory remarks, 235-36)
Notes
- The most developed evolutionary argument, along with a review of the relevant literature, is found in Tomasello, A Natural History of Human Thinking.
- See especially Garfield, Jenkins, and Priest, "The Śāntideva Passage"; Jenkins, "Waking Into Compassion"; Garfield, "Buddhist Ethics in the Context of Conventional Truth."
