In the introduction, he gives an account of his evolution as a philosopher during which he was exposed to many highly respected Buddhist teachers from a young age in the commune in Southampton, New York, where he was brought up.

To start with brain-bound enlightenment or вЂњneural Buddhism,вЂќ Thompson notes that those who endorse this position believe that enlightenment вЂњis a brain state or has unique neural signatures, mindfulness practice consists in training the brain, and cognitive science has corroborated the Buddhist view that there is no self.вЂќ Moving on to what Thompson calls вЂњBuddhist exceptionalism,вЂќ he understands this to consist in the belief that вЂњBuddhism is superior to other religions in being inherently rational and empirical, or that Buddhism isnвЂ™t really a religion but rather is a kind of вЂmind science,вЂ™ therapy, philosophy, or way of life based on meditation.вЂќ Both neural Buddhism and Buddhist exceptionalism operate within a broader movement that historians have termed вЂњBuddhist modernismвЂќ that вЂњdownplays the metaphysical and ritual elements of Asian Buddhism,вЂќ foregrounds вЂњpersonal meditative experience and scientific rationality,вЂќ while at the same time presenting itself вЂњas if it were BuddhismвЂ™s original and essential core, when in fact itвЂ™s historically recent.вЂќДЄmongst contemporary philosophers, Thompson is as well positioned as any to offer reflections on the way that Buddhist modernism has unfolded. In Why I Am Not a Buddhist, Evan Thompson critically engages with both of these ideas.

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