http://www.rentine.com/theshortversion/2008/03/04/lets-get-real/ Love, Life, Meaning, Zen, and Science, by Norm Bearrentine Sat, 04 Feb 2012 04:41:58 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://www.rentine.com/theshortversion/2008/03/04/lets-get-real/comment-page-1/#comment-974 The Search for Ultimate Truth and Certainty | The Short Version Tue, 29 Jun 2010 04:03:01 +0000 http://www.rentine.com/theshortversion/?p=15#comment-974 [...] Buddhists seem unique in offering freedom from fear in our ordinary lives. Although some segments of Buddhism have hedged their bets with the prospect of nirvana, enlightenment, awakening, etc., in some future life, sometimes even in another place—the “Pure Land”—the dominant emphasis has been on freedom from anguish right here, at any moment. The means of achieving this freedom have varied over the centuries, and in elaborating on these means, Buddhists have often created the kinds of absolute truths common to more deist religions. Useful ideas have become dogma. One of the more prominent of these is the idea of impermanence, which I’ve written about before. [...] [...] Buddhists seem unique in offering freedom from fear in our ordinary lives. Although some segments of Buddhism have hedged their bets with the prospect of nirvana, enlightenment, awakening, etc., in some future life, sometimes even in another place—the “Pure Land”—the dominant emphasis has been on freedom from anguish right here, at any moment. The means of achieving this freedom have varied over the centuries, and in elaborating on these means, Buddhists have often created the kinds of absolute truths common to more deist religions. Useful ideas have become dogma. One of the more prominent of these is the idea of impermanence, which I’ve written about before. [...]

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