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Concept of Ultimate Reality Coherent

Wainwright's excerpt begins with him quoting William James, one of the leading philosophical thinkers in the 19th century. This sets a basis or a foundation for his argument about ultimate reality and the potential explaination behind why people seek religion. Since religion is "rooted in human needs, yearnings, and experiences," there is a individualistic connection between each person and their beliefs and dedication to their said religion (89). People struggle and don't understand how to cope with the pitfalls of this life or through the "visable world," so the desire to seek out some higher power that can mend our souls and wash away our pain is logical (88). The concept of ultimate concern is for the highly dedicated or devout who believes that complete and utter surrender to the object of tje ultimate concern then fufillment will follow. In order for something to be an ultimate concern, it must be "maximally perfect in a sense that it is the most perfect possible reality," which really narrows down the options for ultimate concern (89). That idea provokes Wainwright to propose the concept that maximally perfect reality doesnt exist or isn't possible in our physical world bnecause there is not grading scale or way to measure what the actuality of perfection. Responses to this and other concerns on if maximally perfect reality can be achieved are proposed as well with ideas like mutually compatable perfection, pure perfection, and intrinsic happiness. Ultimately, a maximally perfect reality is concievable, but how to reach it is unclear. Wainwright also suggests the idea of personal perfect reality that reaches beyond traditional nontheistic religions that focus on the all-knowing, ever present, loving Father of heaven, but has more emphasis on the "infinite ocean" introduced by Advaita, which is explained by the openess beyond earthly actions and attributes, focusing more on consciousness (94). A person cannot be perfect reality because people and their conciousness are temporary and not longstanding, because "ultimate reality is not a substance... it is more like a transcendent" (94). The passage concludes with the idea that getting further into the many concepts and ideas of how maximally perfect reality just gets deeper into the many problems it arises.

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