The Buddhist corpus is primarily an expression of the Delphic dictum 'Know Thyself' and the injunction that transformational spiritual paths throughout time and space have demanded as the central component in authentic happiness. It is majorly about self-knowledge - who you are, how you make decisions, what governs your thoughts and actions, your relationships with others, and with the world in general. Likewise, the modern discipline of psychology churns models of behavior and mental processes grafted on evolution, under the fatherhood of Wilhelm Wundt.
It is interesting to note that first Galileo blasted the belief that the Earth was at the center of the universe, then Darwin smashed the idea that humans were uniquely positioned at the center of life, and now the 'self' itself is finally to be disabused of its presumption to centrality. This is when the parallelism and multiple overlaps between Buddhism and the modern discipline of psychology have become more relevant to objectively focus on human behavior, the source of unhappiness, and ways to eliminate suffering.

Even the Dalai Lama has emphasized the compatibility of Buddhism with science and has encouraged scholars to critically examine both the meditative practice and the Buddhist ideas about the human mind. Applying the Buddhist prescription requires diligence, perseverance, and discernment as we encounter the resistances and obstacles to our conditioning. Does it make particular sense in light of evolutionary psychology? Would neuroscientists' validation of meditation undermine or enhance the spiritual significance attributed to it? How should we live our
lives to make us happier and better people? These are some questions that motivate scientists and philosophers to dig deeper into the subject.

What provoked me personally, to explore the tenets of Buddhism and position them against the psychological mirror when spirituality wasn't my area of interest? Sometimes you meet certain people and your life changes forever. It happened with me too in a manner I had least expected. When I was super confident that I knew myself inside out and was an unrelenting master of my feelings and actions, I found myself in a novel terrain whose familiarity was unfamiliar, and it didn't allow me to showcase my warrior skills.

I was sinking day by day while I attempted to lift myself against gravity. But you know, every question comes with an answer key. The cause whose effect made me land there was as well the cause of me beginning to graze the green pastures of Buddhism and study my behavior in that light. After months and years of successful and partly unsuccessful trials of solving the puzzle, I started writing this book on the auspicious day of Buddha Purnima and with each passing page, gained a deeper understanding of self as to why I think the way I think or why I feel the way I feel by seeing through the illusions, and regained tighter control over my thoughts, feelings, and actions. And guess who partnered me throughout this journey of crests and troughs? The Buddha himself, yes, I have a graceful statue of the Buddha in silver that's embedded with sparkling stones. It is special because it was gifted to me by my alma mater as a token of appreciation for one of the professional training sessions I conducted for them.

The Buddha classifies human beings into two broad categories - the worldlings, whose eyes are still covered with
the dust of defilements and delusion; and the noble ones or the spiritual elite who obtain this status not from ecclesiastical authority but from their inward nobility of character.