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Quote by Steven Lesk M.D.

“Prehistoric humans were too busy clawing their way to survival to consider suicide any sort of necessary option. Perhaps in a situation of imminent death there might be a decision to end one’s own life one’s own way instead of, say, by being ripped limb from limb by a surly gorilla. But apart from that, no, suicide was not a feature of the prehistoric human’s repertoire. In fact, I would further assert that suicide can only be a facet of modern society that expects happiness. And on that and many other bases, I suggest that happiness is a modern invention.”

Quote by Steven Lesk M.D.

Book:Footprints of Schizophrenia: The Evolutionary Roots of Mental Illness
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Footprints of Schizophrenia: The Evolutionary Roots of Mental Illness

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Steven Lesk M.D.

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“But in the mood d1sorders, uni- and bipolar, we see a return to more primitive, primary process ruminating without the loss of adult cognitive rules. Major depression is a return to a primitive hibernation state without the wholesale collapse in logical processes that we see in schizophrenia. It shifts the usual thought pattern from secondary to primary process thinking, the embattled autopilot of the past six million years or so. If happiness is a modern invention, depressives return to the affective state of the hibernating cave dweller. Mania, on the other hand, is a desperate flight from dreaded depression and encapsulates the level of primitivity imposed by it.”

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“When I look at my friend's marriages, with their routine day-to-dayness, they actually seem far more romantic than any dating relationship might be. Dating seems romantic, but for the most part it's an extended audition. Marriage seems boring, but for the most part it's a state of comfort and acceptance. Dating is about grand romantic gestures that mean little over the long-term. Marriage is about small acts of kindness that bond you over a lifetime. It's quietly romantic. He makes her tea. She goes to the doctor appointment with him. They listen to each other's daily trivia. They put up with each other's quirks. They're there for each other.”

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“We start the path to the end of suffering, not by trying to drop our clingings immediately, but by learning to cling more strategically. In terms of the feeding analogy, we don’t try to starve the mind. We simply change its diet, weaning it away from junk food in favor of health food, developing inner qualities that will make it so strong that it won’t need to feed ever again. The canon lists these qualities as five: conviction in the principle of karma—that our happiness depends on our own actions; persistence in abandoning unskillful qualities and developing skillful ones in their stead; mindfulness; concentration; and discernment. Of these, concentration—at the level of jhāna, or intense absorption— is the strength that the Buddhist tradition most often compares to good, healthy food”

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