✦ THE ERADICATION OF SUFFERING ✦
✦ THE ERADICATION OF SUFFERING ✦ A Philosophy and Theology of Universal Healing, Liberation, and Restoration The highest response to suffering is not merely to endure it, explain it, punish those who caused it, or discover meaning within it. The highest response is to understand it so completely that its causes can be healed—and its kingdom brought to an end. Prologue: The Oldest Wound and the Highest Goal Behind nearly every great human undertaking stands an encounter with suffering. Medicine was born because bodies become sick and wounded. Justice arose because human beings harm one another. Religion emerged partly because grief, guilt, mortality, evil, and apparent divine absence demanded interpretation. Philosophy arose because consciousness wanted to understand why existence contains pain—and how a wise person should respond to it. Politics attempts, at its best, to organize human beings so that they may live together without constantly preying upon one another. Art g...