Life--Wisdom: The Quest for Ultimate Truth in the Perspective of Human Civilization and the Enlightenment of Traditional Buddhism
January 15, 2026 Xiongwei Li
This paper proposes four criteria for identifying ultimate truth: logical consistency, practical verifiability, explanatory transcendence, and existential eternity. It argues that theistic belief, modern science, and philosophical speculation each have inherent limitations in this pursuit. The authors contend that the Dharma of traditional Buddhism, especially the Theravāda tradition's law of Dependent Origination, theory of Karma, and analysis of mind-matter phenomena, provides a cognitive framework to transcend these limitations by realizing Nirvana through the threefold training of morality, concentration, and wisdom, thereby cutting off ignorance and karmic action. The paper engages with quantum mechanics, complex systems theory, and consciousness studies to demonstrate Buddhism's contemporary relevance as a 'cognitive empirical science' and advocates a 'Second Enlightenment' that turns critical rationality inward.