When don't get what we expect

No! We don't want to ever suffer! - Calm down, crybabies. Here's the solution: NIRVANA.

(Buddhism Podcast) Live with what we can't change? No, there's much to do beyond that

Accept what we cannot change? No

Why do we fall into the trap of our expectations? The Truth is much better.

Cry, Homer. But it's okay. It'll all be alright.

(Buddhism Podcast) When life, which is full of disappointment (dukkha), is not what we expected.

There are Four Ennobling Truths, four realizations that lead to enlightenment here and now and awakening in this very life, with spiritual liberation and freedom for all time. What are they?

1. This is disappointing, incapable of ever fulfilling us.
2. This is how pain/disappointment/suffering originates.
3. This is the cessation of all suffering (nirvana).
4. This is the Path to the cessation of all suffering.

• Craving, grasping, lust, longing, "thirst": taṇhā
• The Three Marks (Characteristics) of Existence
• Things keep changing, hurtling towards destruction
• The Eight Worldly Conditions: praise and blame...

Wait, remind me. What is "suffering"?

Many people misunderstand Buddhism because the word "suffering" comes up so much that it seems that's all there is -- depressing talk about pain. This is very misleading. Buddhism is ALL about bringing about the END of all suffering.

I'm not like this. I'm just having a bad day, k?

That is nirvana, attainable here and now, no having to wait till death, which is actually a lot late to be starting to do anything about all the suffering that awaits us for remaining ignorant and asleep. So since we don't suffer, we dismiss anything they Buddha said, thinking it doesn't apply to us. But do we suffer? Well, that depends on, What is "suffering"? The Buddha defines what he is calling suffering (dukkha):

Various sutras sum up what unpleasant things and experiences in countless rebirths we undergo. It is not just the pain that touches us in this life; the process rolls on and on in the "continued wandering on" of saṃsāra.

Oh, the Buddha found the end to all pain?

This process itself (the Five Aggregates clung to as self) is suffering, is unsatisfactory, is disappointing, is liable to great pain, is utterly incapable of ever fulfilling us. Rebirth is suffering (unsatisfactory, disappointing, painful, unfulfilling) as are growth (maturation), aging (slowly breaking down), illness, death, loss, sorrow, crying (lamentation), physical pains, grief, and despair.

Contact with unpleasant (hateful, unloved, unwanted, repulsive) things suffering, as are being separated from the pleasant (wished for, loved, wanted, attractive). Not getting what we want, getting what we don't want, never being satisfied with anything we get, always longing and craving for more...all of it is unsatisfactory, disappointing, painful, suffering.

Things we can control

US killer survives torture with slave philosophy

Stoic philosopher/pilot James Bond Stockdale

And it all comes back to a more fundamental disappointment beneath it all -- the Five Aggregates clung to as self: body (form); feelings (sensations), perceptions, formations, and consciousness clung to as "self."

Emphasis in Buddhism is NOT on belief. That's nearly useless and only preliminary. The emphasis is gnostic like the ancient Gnostics, for whom direct personal experience of the Truth is everything. Part of that is cultivating insight (vipassana, lit. "clear seeing") into the nature of this "suffering" along with the other two marks of existence.

List: Seven Stages of Insight

The process of craving, grasping, and clinging starts with sense-contact, part of the Five Aggregates clung to as self, and how this corruption, this misapprehension, this forming of wrong view, this distorted seeing can be overcome by progressive training of the heart/mind, culminating in progressive insight, which can be remembered as the Seven Stages of Insight.

This begins by moral restraint (virtuous conduct, sila), which makes meditation (the absorptions, jhanas) possible, which makes mindfulness into the four foundations (body, feelings, mind, and mind-objects) possible.

This brings us back to the basics, the foundational summary, of what we need to penetrate -- not memorize, recite, "believe," argue about), the Teaching of the Four Ennobling Truths. What's "noble" about them or about suffering? They are not noble in the English sense of the word. The Buddhist sense of noble is arya or Aryan, which means "enlightened" or "enlightening."

The list is not a formula but a very general outline of the reflections that bring about what the historical Buddha called "enlightenment" (bodhi, "awakening"). We would rather stay asleep and perchance dream a pleasant fantasy full of pleasure and sensual experiences, delights, happiness in all its forms, of which there are many.

But this dreaming is very prone to nightmares, for in pursuit of pleasure, we ill-conduct ourselves and those karmic deeds come to fruition and ripen in great suffering, unimaginable suffering. We already taste that now, when we would dream and be full of pleasure and happiness all the time or, at least, at will. But that doesn't happen. We can't make that happen. We think we can so, like a donkey after that carrot, which is just right there in front of us, we keep going, pulling a heavy load of a cart laden with more and more karma (all our actions).

Buddhist sutras, or discourses, show the broad meaning of "suffering," from the slightest agitation to the greatest agony, coming in three categories:

• dukkha-dukkha, aversion to physical pain – which includes physical and mental suffering, such as rebirth, aging, illness, dying, distress due to the undesirable.
• viparinama-dukkha, the frustration of disappearing happiness – which is the suffering of pleasurable, pleasant, and happy experiences changing to painful, unpleasant, and miserable ones when the causes and conditions that produced the pleasurable are exhausted or lost.
• sankhara-dukkha, the disappointment and unsatisfactoriness of transient, changing, impermanent "things" – the inability of [conditioned] things to give us constant, lasting pleasure and happiness.

So there is an END to all this suffering, now?

This includes a fundamental, inescapable unsatisfactoriness that pervades all things in and states of existence, all situations and future lives in any world (of which there are countless), any plane (of which there are 31), and any sphere (of which there are three), because all things all the time are incapable of fulfilling us and are always changing, hurtling towards destruction, and are ultimately impersonal, not ours, not under our absolute control.

At this level, the term dukkha, "suffering," indicates a lack of any lasting satisfaction, any ultimate fulfillment, any that things can ever measure up to our expectations. More

What is the point of all this talking about or even mentioning "suffering"? Yeah, yeah, we get it; we know we suffer, duh! Can't we just talk about nice things -- bliss, lights, expanded meditative states, magical powers, insights into all physical and mental phenomena, joy unending, nirvana-fication, quenching thirst, dousing the flames of greed, hatred, and smoldering delusion, stuff like that? Suffering is the problem that pleads for a final solution, a state and trait, a condition in need of a cure, an unbearable thing that we at some point have to deal with and bring to a final end.

Four truths to freedom

There's much to do to be free.

The first ennobling truth is the recognition that there is suffering, not because there is but because we don't even recognize it. We think we do. As soon as it pops up, we turn away, move on to something else, jump for distractions. We have next to no idea what it really is or what is causing it.

That is the second ennobling truth: What is causing it? The ROOT cause, the fundamental cause, the ultimate cause is? It is not craving (desire, wanting). It is ignorance (avijja), manifesting as wrong views (miccha-ditthi) and delusion (moha), confusion about reality.

The solution is? Awakening to the Truth, the ultimate truth (paramattha), enlightenment right now -- through realizing the causal links of Dependent Origination, the process by which this suffering is arising. Among those 12 links, of which ignorance is the ultimate cause, is one the Buddha singled as the one we can actually do something about right here and right now directly, and that is craving (tanha). Why do we crave? Ignorance, which is the same reason we have aversion and why we are deluded. The Buddha singles out craving to work on undoing the causes and conditions bringing about suffering. Why?

That is the third ennobling truth: What is not-suffering? Nirvana. Nirvana is the end of all suffering. How do we realize nirvana, directly perceive and experience it here and now?

That is the fourth ennobling truth: There is a Path to the end of suffering. What is it? It is outlined in general in the Ennobling Eightfold Path. However, to be more specific and less general, the Buddha spoke of 37 "things pertaining to enlightenment," the bodhipakkhiya-dhamma, for immediate development to know-and-see nirvana.

• Buddhism Podcast (videos); Dhr. Seven (text), Ashley Wells (ed.), Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit

Seven signs: I'm now closer to Nirvana

(Buddha's Wisdom) We're closer to Nirvana than we think: 7 signs the Buddha described in Theravada Buddhism's Pali canon.

COMMENTARY

Explained by Wisdom Quarterly: American Buddhist Journal

The historical Buddha Gautama blissfully reclines into final nirvana (wiki)

 

But what is "nirvana" and why would anyone want it?

It is "the end of all suffering" or dukkha. It is the extinguishing of all greed, hatred, and delusion (craving, aversion, and ignorance) that keep the illusion and suffering going. It is the cooling of these fires (raging flames, smoldering coals, and blinding smoke). It is the highest bliss, the dissolution of all formations, the end of samsara, the incessant "continued wandering on" of rebirth and death.

• Nirvana is the "deathless" (amata, amrita, ambrosia)
• Nirvana is the "unconditioned element" (asankhata dhatu)
• Nirvana is the highest peace, the true refuge (sarana)
• Nirvana is the freedom (vimutti) from all afflictions
• Nirvana is the liberation (moksha) by wisdom
• Nirvana is the summum bonum of Early Buddhism and therefore of the back-to-basics Theravada school

But what is it, this thing with no equal?

In Theravada Abhidhamma texts such as the Vibhanga, where Sanskrit nirvana is called nibbana in Pali, the "unconditioned element" is defined this way:

"What is the unconditioned element (asankhata dhatu)? It is the cessation of passion, the cessation of hatred [aversion], and the cessation of delusion" [Note 12].

The Dhammasangani likewise describes it as that reality which is a sphere of experience unproduced by any cause or condition, according to L.S. Cousins [111].

The Dhammasangani also describes it in numerous other ways, such as the "immeasurable," "superior to everything," as "not past, present, or future" [the Ancient Greek anionic, the "not aeons," the "timeless," the "eternal now"], as "neither arisen nor not-arisen" and as "neither within nor without" [111].

• In Buddhism, Jainism, and Hinduism, "aeon" is used as a translation of the term kalpa and sometimes maha-kalpa or "great aeon" (Sanskrit महाकल्प). A maha kalpa, which cannot be pinned down to an exact numerical figure, is often said to be 1,334,240,000 years or the life cycle of the world (cakkavāḷa).
• Christianity's idea of "eternal life" comes from a Greek form of aión (αἰών) and the word for life, zōḗ (ζωή) [6], which has been translated to mean [timeless] immortality in the majority of texts, but is argued by some [7, 8, 9] to mean life in the next aeon, the Kingdom of God, or Heaven, instead.
• According to some proponents of Christian universalism, the Greek New Testament scriptures use the word aión (αἰών) to mean "a long period" (or age-long) and the word aiṓnion (αἰώνιον) to mean "during a long period" (or similarly, age-during); thus, there was a time before the aeons, and the aeonian period is finite. After each person's mortal life ends, one is judged worthy or not worthy of aeonian life...
• Another universalist reading, prevalent among Neoplatonists due to its similarity to views expressed in Plato's Timaeus [10], is that the "aeon" does not refer to a time, finite or infinite, but instead a Greek parallel of a Judaic view of distinct natures of time, between the χρόνος (chronos) of the present "age," or עולם הזה ('olam ha-zeh) and the αιώνιος (aionios) of the "age to come," or הָעוֹלָם הַבָּא ('olam ha-ba). More: aeon

Cousins also notes that "suggestively, however, it may be reckoned as nama (name) rather than rupa [form]. This does seem to suggest some element of underlying idealism of the kind which emerges later in the vijñanavada" (the "teaching of consciousness") [111].

Furthermore, for Theravada Buddhism, nibbana is uniquely the ONLY unconditioned element or phenomenon. Theravada argues that nibbana is unitary, that it cannot be divided.

Unlike other Buddhist schools, Theravada does not agree that there are any other unconditioned elements or phenomena, nor that there are different types of nirvana (such as the apratistha or "non-abiding nirvana" invented by Mahayana) [112, 111].

As noted by Thiện Châu, the Theravadans and the Pudgalavadans "remained strictly faithful to the letter of the [Buddha's original] sutras" and thus held that nirvana is the only unconditioned dhamma (phenomenon), while other schools posited various asankhata dhammas, such as the Sarvastivadan view that space (akasha) is unconditioned) [112].

Medieval Theravada exegesis

The fifth century Theravada scholar-monk and exegete Buddhaghosa says in The Path of Purification (Visuddhimagga): "It is called nibbana (extinction) because it has gone away from (nikkhanta), has escaped from (nissata), is dissociated from craving, which has acquired in common usage the name ‘fastening (vana)’ because, by ensuring successive becoming, craving serves as a joining together, a binding together, a lacing together, of the four kinds of generation, five destinies, seven stations of consciousness, and nine abodes of being" [Note 13]. More

Taoism vs. Buddhism: Four big differences

(Flowing Void): 4 differences that actually matter

COMMENTARY

Wisdom Quarterly

• All those who quote Lao Tzu and speak of the "Tao" are not teaching the historical Buddha's message of liberation from suffering and samsara
• Anyone who says "nirvana is samsara" speaks ill of the Buddha's message of liberation in this very life, in this body, in this world
• Syncretism (blending traditions) is beautiful, but it will not likely produce the result of either path. If the Tao is the "way," then the Eightfold Way (magga) the Buddha talked about is a very different use of the word
• If the true Tao is everything, then there is no sense in talking about it
• The Buddha defined the problem, defined the cause, assured is there is a solution, and pointed out the path, the Middle Way, to that solution: dukkha, samudaya, nirodha, magga
  
• The problem is disappointment (suffering)
• The cause is ignorance bound up with craving and aversion
• The extinction of suffering is the extinction of ignorance
• The path leading to this extinction has eight parts
• Buddhism and Taoism may blend beautifully like milk and water, but they are not the same

The Buddha's first sutra: Wheel of Dharma

THE BUDDHA'S FIRST SUTRA (56.11) Setting in Motion the Wheel of the Dhamma

Turning in the dreaded Wheel of Samsara

Thus have I heard. On one occasion the Awakened One was dwelling at Baraṇasi (Varanasi) in the Deer Park at Isipatana (the Resort of Seers). There he addressed the Group of Five [wandering ascetics, his former companions in the spiritual life]:

“Meditators, these two extremes should be abandoned by one who has gone forth from the homelife to the left-home life. What are the two? The pursuit of sensual happiness in sensual pleasures, which is low, vulgar, the way of worldlings, ignoble, unbeneficial on the one hand and the pursuit of self-mortification, which is painful, ignoble, and unbeneficial on the other.

“Without veering off towards either of these extremes, the Tathagata (the Wayfarer, the Buddha) has awakened to the Middle Way, which gives rise to knowledge, which gives rise to vision, which leads to peace, to direct experience, to enlightenment, to nirvana.

“What, meditators, is that Middle Way awakened to by the Tathagata, which gives rise to knowledge and vision…and which leads to nirvana? It is this Ennobling Eightfold Path:

1. right view,
2. right intention,
3. right speech,
4. right action,
5. right livelihood,
6. right effort,
7. right mindfulness,
8. right stillness.

“This, meditators, is that Middle Way awakened to by the Tathagata, which gives rise to knowledge and vision, which leads to peace, to direct experience, to enlightenment, to nirvana.

“Now this, meditators, is the ennobling truth of disappointment (suffering, pain, misery, dukkha): rebirth is disappointing, aging is disappointing, illness is disappointing, death is disappointing; union with what is displeasing is disappointing; separation from what is pleasing is disappointing; not to get what one wants is disappointing; in brief, the Five Aggregates clung to as self are disappointing.

“Now this, meditators, is the ennobling truth of the origin of disappointment: It is this craving that leads to renewed becoming (rebirth), accompanied by delight and lust, seeking delight here and there; that is, craving for sensual pleasure, craving for eternal existence, craving for annihilation.

“Now this, meditators, is the ennobling truth of the cessation of disappointment: It is the remainderless fading away and cessation of that craving, the letting go and abandoning of it, freedom from it, nonreliance on it.

“Now this, meditators, is the ennobling truth of the way leading to the cessation of disappointment: It is this Ennobling Eightfold Path; that is (1-8), right view…right stillness.

“‘This is the ennobling truth of disappointment’: Meditators, in regard to things unheard before, there arose in me knowledge, vision, wisdom, direct experience (true knowledge), and light.

What does it take to be a "wise man"?

“‘This ennobling truth of disappointment is to be fully understood’: Meditators, in regard to things unheard before, there arose in me knowledge, vision, wisdom, direct experience, and light.

“‘This ennobling truth of disappointment has been fully understood’: Meditators, in regard to things unheard before, there arose in me knowledge, vision, wisdom, direct experience, and light.

“‘This is the ennobling truth of the origin of disappointment’: Meditators, in regard to things unheard before, there arose in me knowledge, vision, wisdom, direct experience, and light.

“‘This ennobling truth of the origin of disappointment is to be abandoned’: Meditators, in regard to things unheard before, there arose in me knowledge, vision, wisdom, direct experience, and light.

“‘This ennobling truth of the origin of disappointment has been abandoned’: Meditators, in regard to things unheard before, there arose in me knowledge, vision, wisdom, direct experience, and light.

“‘This is the ennobling truth of the cessation of disappointment’: Meditators, in regard to things unheard before, there arose in me knowledge, vision, wisdom, direct experience, and light.

“‘This ennobling truth of the cessation of disappointment is to be realized’: Meditators, in regard to things unheard before, there arose in me knowledge, vision, wisdom, direct experience, and light.

“‘This ennobling truth of the cessation of disappointment has been realized’: Meditators, in regard to things unheard before, there arose in me knowledge, vision, wisdom, direct experience, and light.

“‘This is the ennobling truth of the way leading to the cessation of disappointment’: Meditators, in regard to things unheard before, there arose in me knowledge, vision, wisdom, direct experience, and light.

“‘This ennobling truth of the way leading to the cessation of disappointment is to be developed’: Meditators, in regard to things unheard before, there arose in me knowledge, vision, wisdom, direct epxerience, and light.

“‘This ennobling truth of the way leading to the cessation of disappointment has been developed’: Meditators, in regard to things unheard before, there arose in me knowledge, vision, wisdom, direct experience, and light.

“So long, meditators, as my knowledge-and-vision of these Four Ennobling Truths as they really are in their three phases and 12 aspects was not thoroughly purified in this way, I did not claim to have awakened to the unsurpassed supreme enlightenment in this world with its devas, maras, and brahmas (deities, demons, and divines), in this generation with its wandering ascetics and temple priests, its beings of light (devas) and humans.

I can get off this interminable wheel now.

“But when my knowledge-and-vision of these Four Ennobling Truths as they really are in their three phases and 12 aspects was thoroughly purified in this way, then I claimed to have awakened to the unsurpassed supreme enlightenment in this world with its devas, maras, and brahmas, in this generation with its wandering ascetics and temple priests, its beings of light and humans.

“Knowledge-and-vision arose in me: ‘Unshakable is my liberation of heart/mind. This is my final rebirth. Now there is no more again becoming.’”

This is what the Blessed One said. Elated, the Group of Five delighted in the Awakened One’s words.

The first hearer to awaken

And while this discourse (sutra) was being spoken, there arose in Venerable Kondañña the dust-free, stainless vision of the Dhamma: “Whatsoever originates also ceases.”

And when the Wheel of the Dhamma (Doctrine) had been set in motion by the Awakened One, the earth-dwelling beings of light (bhumi-devas) raised a cry:

• 

  The 31 Planes of Existence

  “At Baraṇasi, in the Deer Park at Isipatana, this unsurpassed Wheel of the Dhamma has been set in motion by the Awakened One, which cannot be stopped by any wandering ascetic or temple priest (shramana or brahmana) or deva or Mara or Brahma or by anyone in the world.”
• Having heard the cry of the earth-dwelling beings of light, the beings of light in the realm of the Four Great Kings raised [the same] cry: “At Baraṇasi…this unsurpassed Wheel of the Dhamma has been set in motion by the Awakened One.”
• Having heard the cry of the devas of the realm of the Four Great Kings, the Tavatiṁsa devas (the light beings of the World of the Thirty-Three)…
• the Yama devas…
• the Tusita devas…
• the Nimmanarati devas…
• the Paranimmitavasavatti devas…
• the devas of Brahma’s retinue raised [the same] cry: “At Baraṇasi, in the Deer Park at Isipatana, this unsurpassed Wheel of the Dhamma has been set in motion by the Awakened One, which cannot be stopped by any wandering ascetic or temple priest or deva or Mara or Brahma or by anyone in the world.”

Then at that moment, at that instant, at that very second, this cry spread as far as the brahma world, and this 10,000-fold world system shook, quaked, and trembled, and an immeasurable glory and radiance appeared in the world surpassing the divine majesty of the devas.

Then the Awakened One spoke this inspired utterance:

“Koṇḍañña, indeed, understood! Koṇḍañña, indeed, has understood!” In this way Venerable Koṇḍañña acquired the name “Añña Koṇḍañña—Koṇḍañña Who Has Understood.”

• SN 56.11: Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta—Bhikkhu Bodhi (trans.), suttacentral.net, edited by Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly

When Everything Falls Apart: Insight

When Everything Falls Apart – Seeing clearly through Buddhist wisdom on suffering

Drone filming off the pier

(Buddhism Podcast) Sept. 23, 2025: Buddhism Explained. What do we do when everything falls apart? This Buddhist podcast explores suffering (unsatisfactoriness, not being able to derive fulfillment from anything), radical impermanence, and healing through simple, clear insights from the Buddha's teachings. No fluff, no escape — just honest reflection, grounded wisdom, and gentle English for all listeners.

• 00:00 - When life breaks in our hands
• 03:25 - The First Truth: Suffering that arises from within
• 06:50 - Impermanence: the nature of everything
• 10:03 - Clear Seeing: a mind that no longer clings
• 13:17 - Healing isn’t pretending: It’s practice
• 16:43 - WHAT REMAINS?
• (FailArmy) Best Fails of the Year | Try Not To Laugh

Vipassana literally means "clear seeing"

The historical Buddha's goal was clearly seeing nirvana in this very life. Theravada follows this.

.

Buddhism goes beyond mind to mysticism.

Vipassanā (Sanskrit vipaśyanā विपश्यना, Sinhalese විදර්ශනා) literally means "special, super (vi-), seeing (-passanā)" [3] and is generally referred to as "insight."

Samatha means "calm" [1], "serenity" [2], "tranquility of awareness" [Web 1]. They are two qualities of mind cultivated in tandem in Buddhist practice, with profound calm coupled with mindfulness (dispassionate awareness) serving as the basis for insight knowledges.

In the Pāli language canon and the Āgama, these qualities are not specific practices but elements of "a single path." They are "fulfilled" with the development (bhāvanā, "cultivation") of mindfulness (sati) and meditation (jhānas, lit. the meditative "absorptions") and other path-factors [4][5].

While absorption (jhāna) has a central role in the Buddhist path, vipassanā is rarely mentioned separately. It is usually described along with samatha [4][5] because they are steps towards one goal: liberating wisdom (panna, Sanskrit prajna). More: samatha-vipassanā

(DemocracyNow.org) Top U.S./World Headlines — Sept. 26, 2025

#BuddhistWisdom #Impermanence #WhenThingsFallApart #Suffering #Mindfulness

• FailArmy Best of the Year; Buddhism Podcast, 9/23/25; Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit

Knowing and Seeing Nirvana

X. Knowledge and Vision of Release

Wow, look at all those fish and gravel!

§ 75. "It is just as if there were a pool of water in a mountain glen — clear, limpid, and unsullied — where a person with good eyesight standing on the bank could see shells, gravel, and pebbles as well as shoals of fish swimming about and resting.

"It might occur to that person, 'This pool of water is clear, limpid, and unsullied. Here are these shells, gravel, and pebbles as well as shoals of fish swimming about and resting.'

"In the same way — with mind stilled [calmed and concentrated], purified, and bright, unblemished, free of defects, pliant, malleable, steady, and attained to imperturbability — the meditator directs and inclines it to the knowledge of the ending of the mental defilements (asavas).

There is much to know and see with clarity

"One discerns as it is, 'This is suffering (dukkha)... This is the origination of suffering... This is the cessation of suffering... This is the way leading to the cessation of suffering... 

"These are mental defilements... This is the origination of the defilements... This is the cessation of the defilements... This is the way leading to the cessation of the defilements.'

"One's heart, thus knowing and seeing, is released from the defilement of sensuality, the defilement of becoming, the defilement of ignorance. With liberation, there is the knowledge, 'Liberated.' One discerns that, 'Rebirth is ended, the high life has been fulfilled, the task is done. There is nothing further for this world'" (DN 2).

What is there to know and see?

Enlightenment=awakening (bodhi)

§ 76. "Vision arose, clear-seeing arose, wisdom arose, knowledge arose, illumination (enlightenment) arose within me with regard to things never heard before:

"'This is the noble [enlightened] truth of suffering [understanding what is and is not disappointment]... This noble truth of suffering is to be comprehended... This noble truth of suffering has been comprehended...

"This is the noble truth of the origination of suffering... This noble truth of the origination of suffering is to be abandoned... This noble truth of the origination of suffering has been abandoned...

"This is the noble truth of the cessation of suffering... This noble truth of the cessation of suffering is to be realized... This noble truth of the cessation of suffering has been realized...

"This is the noble truth of the path of practice leading to the cessation of suffering... This noble truth of the path of practice leading to the cessation of suffering is to be developed... This noble truth of the path of practice leading to the cessation of suffering has been developed.'

"Meditators, as long as my knowing and seeing (knowledge and vision) — with its three rounds and 12 permutations concerning these Four Noble Truths as they actually are — was not pure, I did not claim to have directly awakened (become enlightened) to the unexcelled right awakening...

"But as soon as my knowing and seeing — with its three rounds and 12 permutations concerning these Four Noble Truths as they actually are — was truly pure, only then did I claim to have directly awakened to the unexcelled right awakening...

"Knowing and seeing arose in me: 'Unshakable is my liberation. This is my last rebirth. There is now no more further becoming'" (SN 56.11).

What does one see when awakening?

§ 77. "What a Wayfarer [Tathagata, successful practitioner, arahant] sees is this: 'Such is form, such its origin, such its disappearance; such is feeling, such its origin, such its disappearance; such is perception...such are mental formations (fabrications)...such is consciousness, such its origin, such its disappearance.' [These are the Five Aggregates clung to as self.]

"Because of this, I say, a Wayfarer — with the ending, fading out, cessation, letting go, and relinquishment of all speculation and thinking, all I-making and mine-making and obsessions with conceit [the habit of seeing everything in terms of an I or self or soul] — is, through lack of clinging (that sustains it), liberated."

"But, Master Gotama [the Buddha Siddhartha Gautama], the meditator whose mind/heart is thus liberated, where does that person reappear [where is that being reborn]?"

"'The designation 'reappear,' Vaccha, does not apply."

"In that case, Master Gotama, that person does not reappear."

"The designation 'does not reappear,' Vaccha, does not apply."

"In that case, Master Gotama, that person both does and does not reappear."

"Vaccha... [that designation] does not apply."

"In that case, Master Gotama, that person 'neither does nor does not reappear."

"Vaccha... [that designation] does not apply."

"How is it, Master Gotama, when Master Gotama is asked if the meditator reappears [is reborn]... does not reappear... both does and does not reappear... neither does nor does not reappear [which exhausts the four logical possibilities], he says, 'that designation does not apply' in each case?

"At this point, Master Gotama, I am befuddled. At this point, I am confused. The small amount of clarity coming to me from your earlier conversation is now obscured."

"Of course you are befuddled, Vaccha, of course you are confused. Deep, Vaccha, is this dhamma [reality, teaching, ultimate truth], hard to see, hard to realize, tranquil, refined, beyond the scope of conjecture, subtle, to-be-experienced by the wise.

"For those holding other views [other doctrines or dhammas], other practices, other goals that would satisfy them, other aims, other teachers, it is difficult to know [and see]. That being the case, I will now put some questions to you. Answer as you see fit.

"What do you think, Vaccha, if a fire were burning in front of you, would you know, 'This fire is burning in front of me'?"

"Yes..."

"And, Vaccha, suppose someone were to ask you, 'This fire burning in front of you, dependent on what is it burning?' Thus asked, how would you reply?"

"...I would reply, 'This fire burning in front of me is burning dependent on grass and timber as its fuel (sustenance).'"

"If the fire burning in front of you were to go out, would you know, 'This fire burning in front of me has gone out'?"

"Yes..."

"And, Vaccha, suppose someone were to ask you, 'This fire that has gone out in front of you, in which direction has it gone? East? West? North? South?' Thus asked, how would you reply?"

"That does not apply, Master Gotama. Any fire burning dependent on fuel fed by grass and timber, being unnourished — from having consumed that fuel and not being offered any other — is classified simply as 'out' [extinguished, unbound, no longer clinging to fuel]."

"Just so, Vaccha, any physical form by which one describing the Wayfarer would describe him, that the Wayfarer has abandoned, its root destroyed, made like a palmyra stump [that does not grow back once it is cut down], deprived of the conditions of development, not destined for future rearising.

"Freed from the classification of form, Vaccha, the Wayfarer is deep, boundless (unbound), hard to fathom, like the sea. 'Reappears [is reborn]' does not apply. 'Does not reappear' does not apply. 'Both does and does not reappear' does not apply. 'Neither reappears nor does not reappear' does not apply.

Wow, who knew there was so much to see!

"Any feeling... Any perception... Any mental formation (fabrication)... "Any consciousness by which one describing the Wayfarer would describe him, that the Wayfarer has abandoned, its root destroyed, made like a palmyra stump, deprived of the conditions of development, not destined for future rearising.

"Freed from the classification of consciousness, Vaccha, the Tathagata is deep, boundless, hard to fathom, like the sea [of space]" (MN 72).

• Ven. Thanissaro (American Geoffrey DeGraff) Noble Conversation: A Study Guide altered (restored to customary rather than idiosyncratic translation of terms where possible) and edited by Wisdom Quarterly 

(British Monk) Who needs more than the sutras?

If life is suffering, why live?

In his oversimplicity, he is wrong on each point.

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