If life is 'suffering,' what's the point?

If 'life is suffering,' what’s the point of living? The Buddha's life-changing answer

What is vipassana?

(Buddha's Wisdom) April 30, 2025: 🔍 THE BUDDHA'S SHOCKING ANSWER TO LIFE'S BIGGEST QUESTION: Why do anything at all if life is filled with pain, loss, separation, and disappointment (dukkha)?

The Buddha said, “Life is suffering [disappointing, unsatisfactory],” — but he didn’t stop there. That was just laying out the problem we face. Living (existing) includes unbearable pain and horrifying misery.

Why was the Buddha always smiling?

["Life is what happens when you're making plans."]

• Ikigai (生き甲斐, literally "a reason for being") is a Japanese concept that refers to what an individual defines to be the meaning of his or her life. More

Beneath that harsh (and potentially enlightening) truth lies one of the most liberating insights in all of human history.

TIMESTAMPS

• 00:00 LIFE'S MOST DISTURBING QUESTION
• 01:25 THE HAPPINESS TRAP
• 04:03 THE IMPOSSIBLE GAME
• 06:43 THE BUDDHA'S SECRET WEAPON
• 09:34 THE MEANING MISTAKE
• 12:32 LIVING WITHOUT A POINT
• 15:02 THE ULTIMATE PLOT TWIST

This video unpacks a forgotten teaching that turns suffering into meaning as it reveals the radical Buddhist answer to life’s most haunting question.

DISCOVER:

Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind (Shunryu Suzuki)

• The happiness trap that keeps most people stuck in a cycle of dissatisfaction
• How the Buddha's First Noble (Ennobling = Enlightening) Truth is profoundly misunderstood in Western culture
• The revolutionary approach to meaning that flips conventional wisdom upside down
• Why the very search for purpose might be preventing us from finding it
• Three practical Buddhist practices we can start today to transform our experience

SOURCES

• Dhammapada, Translations of Sayings of the Buddha Teachings by Thich Nhat Hanh [Tick Not Hawn] and the Dalai Lama, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind by Shunryu Suzuki.
• Additional reflections are based on Vipassana ("Insight Meditation") retreats and Buddhist psychology (Abhidhamma)
• [There are FOUR enlightening truths, not one: There's suffering; there's a reason for it; there and END to suffering; and there's a reason why it ends! Ah, so there's hope and happiness!]

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• Matt, Buddha's Wisdom, April 30, 2025; Dhr. Seven, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Pat Macpherson, Wisdom Quarterly