This is the 10% happier podcast.

I'm Dan Harris.

Hey, everybody.

Most of us come into the world with the suspicion that we are the center of the universe.

This is completely natural, this self-preoccupation, but it can often lead to unhappiness in the

form of compulsive remination, rowing, planning, wallowing, comparison, etc.

As I like to say, the view is so much better when you pull your head out of your ass.

But this of course raises the perennial question, at least the perennial question here on

this show, how to actually do this.

My guest today has a very clear proposal for how we can stop living what she calls artificial

lives and shave down on our inborn self-centeredness.

Not for nothing, she believes her proposal has the added benefit of perhaps helping to

save the planet.

Karen Armstrong is a legend.

She is a former nun who has become one of the world's leading thinkers on religion, particularly

the monotheistic ones.

She has written such bestsellers as a history of God, the battle for God, Islam, and Buddha.

Her latest book is called Sacred Nature.

Many people have criticized organized religions, again, primarily the monotheistic ones, for promoting

the idea that we humans have dominion over nature and can do whatever we want.

In her new book, Armstrong aims to set the record straight, in particular by studying Buddhist,

Taoist, and Hindu texts that show that many of the world's great religions and contemplative

...