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***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n As will, I\u2019m sure, be immediately apparent to those who are<\/em> specialists, I am anything but an expert on Buddhism<\/a>.\u00a0 But details on Buddhism aren\u2019t really the point of the comment that follows.\u00a0 If I\u2019ve got something wrong, or even the whole conception of Buddhism wrong, please concentrate on the more fundamental thought here:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n As I understand his biography, the parents of Siddh\u0101rtha Gautama \u2014 later to be known as the Buddha (the \u201cEnlightened One\u201d) \u2014 isolated him in a palace through his childhood and early youth, carefully ensuring that he didn\u2019t see poverty, suffering, ugliness, illness, or decrepitude, attempting to spare him even the awareness that such things existed.\u00a0 But, as was inevitable, he eventually got out and was deeply disturbed by what he encountered.\u00a0 Thereafter, he bent all his thought toward escape from suffering.\u00a0 And, after he had achieved enlightenment, he graciously chose to remain among ordinary unenlightened humans in order to show us<\/em> the way to enlightenment \u2014 which is the principle of non-attachment.\u00a0 If we give up lust, cravings, and desires, we can achieve serenity and put ourselves beyond pain and sorrow.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I suppose that I could have, and probably should have, used Stoicism instead of Buddhism.\u00a0 But my fundamental point is served by (my misunderstanding of?) both.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n There is certainly truth and value in non-attachment, at least as it is properly applied.\u00a0 It is a commonplace that we should not allow ourselves to become unduly attached to transient or relatively insignificant things (e.g. wealth, power, status, or physical beauty).<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n It seems to me, nevertheless, that the fundamental message of Christianity is in some ways distinctly opposed to the principle of non-attachment.\u00a0 \u201cFor God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life\u201d (John 3:16).\u00a0 The notion that God is \u201cwithout body, parts, or passions\u201d \u2014 passions<\/em> here meaning \u201cemotions\u201d \u2014 is thoroughly pagan, and thoroughly unbiblical.\u00a0 (See my 2013 Deseret News<\/em> column\u00a0\u201cMight As Well Pray to a Rock.\u201d<\/a>)\u00a0 According to basic Christian teaching, Christ came into the world to suffer on our behalf, not to escape<\/em> suffering.\u00a0 According to one of the greatest chapters in all of scripture, Moses 7<\/a>, even God himself sorrows over the sins of humanity.\u00a0 And he seeks to save us.\u00a0 All<\/em> of us.\u00a0 \u201cGod our Saviour . . .\u00a0<\/span>will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth\u201d (1 Timothy 2:3-4).\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u201cFor behold, this is my\u00a0work\u00a0and my\u00a0glory\u2014to bring to pass the\u00a0immortality\u00a0and\u00a0eternal\u00a0life\u00a0of man\u201d (Moses 1:39).<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n And we, as disciples of Christ, are not<\/em> directed to withdraw into non-attachment, but are told that \u201cHe that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love\u201d (1 John 4:8).\u00a0 We are commanded to take his message to everyone.\u00a0 \u201cAnd he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature\u201d (Mark 16;15).\u00a0 And we are not to retreat into a serenely hermitic distance from humankind, but to be fully engaged with the daily life around us.\u00a0 \u201cA man filled with the love of God,\u201d said the Prophet Joseph Smith, \u201cis not content with blessing his family alone, but ranges through the whole world, anxious to bless the whole human race.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cAnxious<\/em> to bless the whole human race.\u201d\u00a0 The word should probably, more properly, be eager.<\/em> Whatever the word, though, it clearly doesn\u2019t suggest \u201cnon-attachment.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Now, I know enough about Buddhism to know that the distinction that I\u2019m making isn\u2019t quite fair.\u00a0 It\u2019s not that simple.\u00a0 There were and are Buddhist<\/a> missionaries.\u00a0 They didn\u2019t simply withdraw into monastic seclusion.\u00a0 One of my personal heroes in the Mauryan emperor of India known as Ashoka.\u00a0 (See the 2012 Deseret News<\/em> column \u201cIndian ruler sowed seeds of Buddhism.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n But please remember, again, that my point here isn\u2019t really about Buddhism at all.\u00a0 And I could easily have taken illustrations from elements of the broader Christian tradition itself.\u00a0 Most specifically, for my purposes here, Latter-day Saint Christians are not encouraged to secede into monastic isolation.\u00a0 Quite the contrary.\u00a0 We\u2019re to be \u201cin the world but not of the world.\u201d\u00a0 We usually put the emphasis on not being \u201cof the world.\u201d\u00a0 But the principle also insists that we should be fully \u201cin\u201d it.\u00a0 Among the implications of this is that we\u2019re to have, and to love, and to care for family and friends.\u00a0 To have and raise children.\u00a0 To care about grandchildren.\u00a0 In the doctrines of the Restoration, family is not just a pleasant earthly phenomenon for many people.\u00a0 Rather, it\u2019s an eternal principle and goal.\u00a0 It is fundamental.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The trouble is that our occasions for pain are multiplied when we care about others.\u00a0 We are vulnerable to disappointments, betrayals, pains, and sorrows ourselves, as individual.\u00a0 But if, going in the opposite direction from complete non-attachment, we widen our circle to care about parents, children, grandparents, grandchildren, extended family, friends, and colleagues, we greatly increase the likelihood that we will feel the sorrows, pains, betrayals, and\u00a0 disappointments, betrayals, pains, and sorrows of other people, and not merely our own.\u00a0 The metaphor that has long occurred to me with regard to this matter is that of a bubble enclosing us.\u00a0 The surface of the bubble represents our susceptibility to pain and hurt.\u00a0 By expanding our bubble in include others, we rapidly increase the surface of the bubble around us \u2014 and, thus, our liability to be hurt.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n