ABSTRACT
Beyond Enlightenment has explored the political dimension of discursive objects that are commonly served up as apolitical: extraordinary universal value, original intentions, scripture, dharma. But these investigations have not advanced a model for positive engagement in a world where the apolitical is political. I shall endeavor to do so now. This final chapter will seek a wisdom that responds to the secular facticity of political struggle, not by projecting a chiliasm of politics transcended, but by articulating a politics compatible with irreducible pluralism; a wisdom that does not idealize the cessation of suffering, but idealizes the ability to take responsibility for suffering as a constitutive and productive dimension of life. And yes, it will be all the sweeter when we find a word for this wisdom in the Sanskrit of bauddha polemic-icchantika.
