When "desire" is GOOD in Buddhism

The Buddha's [distinction] about "desire" that Western Buddhism gets wrong

The rare beauty of Native American men

(The Midnight Library) July 10, 2026: [Theravada] Buddhism is often described as a tradition that teaches us to eliminate "desire." This is one of the most persistent misreadings in the history of the Western encounter with Eastern philosophy.

The ancient Pali canon makes a precise distinction between two words that, in English, may both be rendered as "desire," but they are almost opposites.

Tanha is compulsive "craving" driven by a sense of lack — whereas chanda is "aspiration" driven by genuine vision.

The Buddha actively encouraged chanda ("desire," "aspiration," "will," "intention") while working to release tanha ("desire," "craving," lit. "thirst").

Simplistic and wrong: Buddhism explained in 1 minute! - Misunderstanding the term "desire"

Professor of Neuroscience Dr. Wolfram Schultz, MD, at Cambridge University, England, documented that the dopamine reward system produces more activation in anticipation (wanting) than in satisfaction (getting) — confirming the structural mechanism of tanha (craving) 2,600 years after the Buddha described it.

• Dr. Robert Sapolsky: Behave

The Craving Mind (Dr. Judson Brewer)

Neuroscientist and psychiatrist Dr. Judson Brewer, MD, who studies the default mode network at Brown University confirmed in The Craving Mind (2017) that mindful [dispassionate detached attention to what is happening in the present moment without moving towards the pleasant, away from the unpleasant, or being confused/bored by the neutral] observation of craving interrupts the compulsive cycle measurably.

• Tara Brach: Meditation teacher, psychologist, author

Radical Acceptance (Dr. Tara Brach, PhD)

Three Buddhist practices drawn directly from the Pali canon: The R.A.I.N. practice, the aspiration question, and the satiation experiment.

• Recognize, name what is present
• Allow, do not react (chase, act on, suppress, check out, do not crave, resist, or go dull in boredom/confusion), let it be present (radical acceptance)
• Investigate, what does it feel like, where is it located in the body, what is its texture?
• Nurture, bring kindness to the experience, not to the craving itself but to the part of you experiencing it
• "This practice interrupts the automatic cycle of trigger to craving to behavior and creates a gap in which choice becomes possible."
• "Prof. Brewer's research has confirmed that this gap created through mindful [dispassionate, equanimous, attentive, vigilant, wakeful, unbiased] observation of craving measurably reduces the compulsive quality of tanha [craving, addiction, obsession, compulsion] over time."

"The Craving Mind"

(Clear Mountain Monastery Project) The Craving Mind and the Default

Mode [Network]’s Addiction to Self | Dr. Judson Brewer. MD, PhD

• 

  Beauty is more than skin deep!

  BIO: Dr. Judson Brewer, MD, PhD (aka "Dr. Jud"), is a New York Times best-selling author and pioneering psychiatrist blending cutting-edge neuroscience with 20+ years of Buddhist mindfulness training. A leader in the science of habit change, he is director of research at Brown University’s Mindfulness Center and has held positions at MIT, Yale U., and UMass. Dr. Jud developed app-based programs like Mindshift Recovery, Unwinding Anxiety, Eat Right Now, and Craving to Quit, clinically proven to treat anxiety, addiction, and emotional eating. He’s the author of The Craving Mind, Unwinding Anxiety, and The Hunger Habit, and co-founder of the nonprofit Mindshift Recovery. He is also a collaborator with Clear Mountaineers and medical researchers Dori Rosenberg and Dave Arterburn. More

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"The Rewarded Brain"

(Cambridge Philosophical Society) The Rewarded Brain | A V Hill Lecture

Handsome American Indian

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• The Midnight Library @TheRealMidnight...) July 10, 2026; Dr. Wolfram Schultz; Dr. Judson Brewer; Dr. Tara Brach; Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation) (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Origins of greed, hatred, and delusion

Animal symbols for each of the poisons

(Jethavanarama Buddhist Monastery) The origins of greed (raga), hatred (dvesha), and delusion (moha), the Three Poisons:

The Three Poisons (Pali lobha, dosa, moha and Sanskrit raga, dvesha, moha or collectively triviṣa, Tibetan dug gsum) in the Mahayana tradition are the three unwholesome roots (Pāli akusala-mūla, Sanskrit akuśala-mūla) in the Theravada tradition.

It is a Buddhist term that refers to the three root defilements (kilesas, kleshas) that lead to all negative states. The three states or actions (karmic root motivations) are:

1. greed or sensual craving
2. hatred/fear or aversion
3. delusion, wrong view, or ignorance [1, 2].

These Three Poisons are considered three afflictions, habits, character flaws (states or traits) that are innate in living beings. They are the roots of all unwholesome actions (karma), as there can be craving or aversion without ignorance, and they cause suffering and lead again and again to rebirth [1, 3]. More

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!]

If this perspective resonates, hit subscribe to continue exploring the Buddha's wisdom with Buddha's Wisdom. New videos every week diving deeply into ancient insights that can transform modern life. Support the channel: buymeacoffee.com/buddhaswisdom #buddhism, #meditation, #meaningoflife, #buddhawisdom, #suffering, #purpose, #dukkha, #firstnobletruth, #mindfulness, #enlightenment, #spirituality, #impermanence

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

When life changes, STOP clinging: Alan Watts

Alan Watts, T&H, 5/29/23; Ananda (DB Meditation), Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

No, don't change! I need you to stay the same or I'll suffer! Go back to being the same!!

When life changes, stop clinging to it - Alan Watts on the philosophy of Yūgen

(T&H - Inspiration & Motivation) Here is a powerful and profound speech on our changing world by Zen Buddhist/Hindu/Taoist explainer Alan Watts.

Original audio sourced from “Out of Your Mind 11: The World as Emptiness (Part 1).”

Whaddya mean "let go"? I need this thing!

Clinging (upādāna) is a very terrible habit in Buddhism. It is rooted in delusion/ignorance (moha) and often accompanied by fear/aversion (dosa). We grasp at things we think will bring us pleasure and relief, not realizing we are taking up suffering and dooming ourselves to disappointment. Not learning from one catastrophe, we go on to another and another, life after life. When an awakened teacher points to a solution, some see it. Most of us miss it.

“The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance,” explained spiritual entertainer Alan Watts (1915–1973) when he came from Britain to live in California.

►Speech courtesy of alanwatts.org. Follow the Alan Watts Organization: instagram.com/alanwattsorg, facebook.com/AlanWattsAut... YouTube: alanwattsorg. Speech licensed from mindsetdrm.com.

►Follow T&H: Mindset App: link.mindsetapp.com/THMotivation Instagram, Facebook, Podcast: linktr.ee/tandhinspiration. YouTube: tradgedyandhope.

ABOUT: T&H Inspiration is on a mission to share inspiring wisdom. The goal is to have viewers pause, think, and reflect. Many videos revolve around the extraordinary teachings of Alan Watts that are produced with permission from the Alan Watts Electronic University.

T&H also films and releases original interviews with iconic people who have experienced successes, while also persevering through life's highs and lows, sharing these perspectives and insights. The hope with these videos is to push thinking.

As Alan Watts said, “No one is more dangerously insane than one who is sane all the time: he is like a steel bridge without flexibility, and the order of his life is rigid and brittle.”

Is life disappointing and painful?

Ven. Piyadassi Thera edited and expanded by Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly

What is the cause of disappointment/pain?

Life, according to the right understanding of a buddha, is NOT "suffering," but it is unsatisfactory (dukkha), disappointing, and suffused with a lack-of-fulfillment. It cannot be satisfactory, though we think it can, and it has the potential for great pain and misery.

Is there pleasure? Of course! Is there happiness (sukha)? Yes! Yet, for all that, life (pursuing our cravings) is not able to fulfill us, satisfy us, allay our pains, except that pleasure sometimes distracts us.

"Suffering" in English means one thing, and it is not what the Buddha was talking about. It is too powerful a translation that misleads. Many translators use it because it does not shrink back from the problem of physical pain and psychological disappointment. Pain is based on ignorance, delusion, wrong view (avijja). That is not to say it does not exist. That is to say it does exist and is rooted in this mental defilement, the greatest source of suffering. So what is the solution? It is enlightenment, wisdom, insight in the Truth.

Ignorance is the experiencing of that which is unworthy of experiencing — namely harmfulness. Furthermore, it is the non-perception of the fabricated nature of the Five Aggregates. It is:

• the non-perception of sense-organs and their objects in their objective natures,
• the non-perception of the emptiness (impersonal nature) of the elements,
• the non-perception of the dominant nature of the sense faculties,
• the non-perception of the thus-ness — the such-ness, infallibility — of the Four Noble Truths.

And the Five Hindrances (pañca nivaranani) are the nutriment or necessary condition for this ignorance. They are called "hindrances" because they completely close in, cut off, and obstruct liberating insight. They hinder the understanding of the way to liberation from all suffering (disappointment, pain, unsatisfactoriness).

The Five Hindrances

1. Sensuality (kamacchanda)
2. Ill-will (vyapada)
3. Obduracy of mind and mental factors (thinamiddha)
4. Restlessness and worry (uddhacca-kukkucca), and
5. Skeptical doubt (vicikiccha).

What is the nutriment of these hindrances? The three harmful modes of life (tini duccaritani): 1) bodily, 2) verbal, and 3) mental wrong-doing.

This threefold nutriment is, in turn, nourished by non-restraint of the senses (indriya asamvaro), which is explained by the Commentary as the admitting of lust and hate [passion and aversion] into the six sense-organs of eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind.

The nutriment of non-restraint is shown to be lack of mindfulness and of complete awareness (asati asampajañña). In the context of nutriment, the drifting away of the object (dhamma, thing) — the lapsing, from the mind, of the knowledge of the Three Universal Marks or Characteristics of Existence:

1. impermanence (change)
2. unsatisfactoriness (suffering)
3. impersonal nature (not self).

And forgetfulness of the true nature of things is the reason for non-restraint. It is when one does not bear in mind the transience and the other characteristics of things that one allows oneself all kinds of liberties in thought, speech, and deed. Two give rein to unskillful imagery (thought).

Lack of complete awareness is lack of these four:

1. complete awareness of purpose (sattha sampajañña),
2. of suitability (sappaya sampajañña),
3. of resort (gocara sampajañña), and
4. of non-delusion (asammoha sampajañña).

When one does something while lacking right purpose, when one looks at things or does actions (performs karma) that do not help the growth of the good,

• when one does things inimical to improvement,
• when one forgets the dhamma (the Truth, the teachings, the Dharma), which is the real resort of one who strives,
• when one deludedly takes hold of things believing them to be pleasant (able to satisfy or able to fulfill one), beautiful, permanent, or substantial —
• when one behaves in this way, then also non-restraint is nourished.

And below this lack of mindfulness and complete awareness lies unsystematic reflection (ayoniso manasikara). The books say unsystematic reflection (the opposite of wise reflection) is reflection that is off the right course.

That is to say, one takes the impermanent as permanent, the painful as pleasurable, the impersonal as a self, the unskillful as skillful (unwholesome as wholesome, unprofitable as profitable, bad as good).

The constant rolling-on through rebirths that is samsara is rooted in unsystematic consideration. When unsystematic consideration increases, it fulfils two things, nescience (ignorance) and craving for more becoming (rebirth).

Ignorance being present, the origination of this entire mass of suffering (disappointment) comes to be. Thus a person who is a shallow thinker (lacking systematic consideration), like a ship drifting at the wind's will, like a herd of cattle swept into the whirl pool of a river, like an ox yoked to a cycling wheel-contraption, goes on revolving in the cycle of rebirth, samsara.

And it is said that imperfect confidence (assaddhiyam) in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha is the condition that develops unsystematic reflection. And imperfect confidence is due to non-hearing of the Dharma (the teaching of a fully awakened buddha), the Dharma (asaddhamma savanam).

Finally, one does not hear the Dharma through lack of contact with the wise (those in the stages of enlightenment), through not approaching and keeping company with the good (asappurisa sansevo).

Therefore, want of noble friendship (kalyana-mittata) appears to be the basic reason for the ills of the world. Conversely, the basis and nutriment of all good is shown to be noble friendship. For it furnishes one with the nourishment of the sublime Dharma, which in turn produces confidence in the Triple Gem (tiratana): the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha.

When one has confidence in the Triple Gem, there come into existence profound or systematic consideration, mindfulness and complete awareness (sati-sampajjana), restraint of the senses, the three good modes of life, the Four Foundations (or Arousings) of Mindfulness, the Seven Factors of Enlightenment, and deliverance through wisdom, one after another, in order [5]. More

The Nature of Things: Body

Ajahn Chah and Ajahn Fuang Jotiko via Ven. Sujato (facebook.com); Dhamma Teacher Aloka, Dhr. Seven, Crystal Quintero (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Nature

Noble Thai Meditation Master Ajahn Chah

Trees, mountains, and vines all live according to their own truth. They appear and die following their nature. They remain impassive. But not we people. We make a fuss over everything. Yet, the body just follows its own nature: It is born, grows old [gets sick], and eventually dies. The body follows nature in this way. Whoever wishes it to be or do otherwise will suffer.

• Why things are the way they are, according to Buddhism (ThoughtCo.com on The Five Niyamas)

Dharma
Ajahn Fuang Jotiko edited by Dhr. Seven

What's the true nature of things? (AG)

The Dharma [the "Truth" (Dhamma) about phenomenal "things" (dhammas)] -- our meditation theme -- is something we all have within us, each and every one of us.

It's something we're doing as we sit here. We're practicing it, training in it. The question is, How can we take what's already here and make it complete?

We have to make an effort to use our powers of observation to acquaint ourselves with what's already here.

Our teachers simply tell us, point out the way. As for us, we have to train ourselves to use our powers of observation within ourselves: to know in line with the truth within us.

Once we see that it's true, we look after it so that it develops. We keep looking after it as much as possible, and there are no two ways about it: It'll simply have to progress [to full self-realization].

Keep going, Sid!

There aren't a lot of complicated steps to all this. We simply look after what's already there so that it can become full and complete.

It'll grow day by day, month by month, year by year. The developments in our minds will get better and better.

It's not the case that things appear only for a moment and that's plenty enough. That's not the case at all.

Whatever appears here and now, while we're sitting here, we have to keep looking after it continually, all day, all night, all month, all year long. We have to keep after it continuously, without stopping.

If we keep looking after it, the developments in our minds will keep developing further along.

The teeth in this body
Ajahn Chah

 My teeth, too?! But I'm a dentist!!

Conditions all go their own natural way. Whether we laugh or cry over them, they just go their own way.

And there is no knowledge of science that can prevent this natural course of things. We may get dentists to look after our teeth, but even if they can fix them, teeth still finally go their natural way.

Eventually even the dentist has the same trouble. Everything falls apart in the end.

When Things Fall Apart

Love's suffering: "We're just FRIENDS!" (video)

Marshmello & Anne-Marie; BD; Ashley Wells, Crystal Quintero (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

 

Heartbreak hurts so much, so very much. This disappointment/pain is called dukkha in Buddhism, a word that covers the range of unpleasant sensation:

• grief, lamentation, despair, distress, woe, ill, misery, off-kilter, unsatisfactoriness, or the catchall "suffering."

Dukkha (the opposite of the Buddhist word sukha that covers the range of pleasant sensations or "happiness") refers to painful feeling, which may be bodily or mental. (The Buddhist word for "feeling" is vedanā).

 

Disappointment/suffering is the first of the Four Noble Truth , the thing that causes most of us to strive for freedom, liberation, and the final "end of all suffering" (nirvana) that comes with enlightenment. It is the second of the Three Universal Characteristics of Existence.

The term is not limited to painful experience as under, but refers to the unsatisfactory (dissatisfying, unsatisfactory) nature and the general insecurity of all conditioned phenomena. Such phenomena are things dependent for their existence on constituents or conditions.

On account of their impermanence, all are liable to result in disappointment/suffering. The shocking thing is that this includes pleasurable experiences.

So "unsatisfactoriness" -- which refers to all the things "liable to result in suffering" -- is a more adequate rendering than "suffering." Let's go with "disappointment."

The first noble truth does not deny the existence of happiness, joy, or pleasurable experiences, as is often wrongly assumed. This is illustrated by the following sutra excerpts when the Buddha said:

Sutra

"Seeking SATISFACTION in the world, meditators, I had pursued my way. That satisfaction in the world I found. Insofar as satisfaction exists in the world, I have well perceived it by wisdom.

"Seeking for MISERY in the world, meditators, I had pursued my way. That misery in the world I found. Insofar as misery exists in the world, I have well perceived it by wisdom.

"Seeking for the ESCAPE from the world, meditators, I had pursued my way. That escape from the world I found. Insofar as an escape from the world exists, I have well perceived it by wisdom" (A.iii.105).

 

"If there were no satisfaction [pleasure, joy, happiness] to be found in the world, beings would not be attached to the world....

"If there were no misery to be found in the world, beings would not be repelled by the world....

"If there were no escape from the world, beings could not escape from the world" (A.iii.106).

• For Buddhist texts on the noble truth of suffering, see The Word of the Buddha and The Path to Deliverance by Ven. Nyanatiloka (BPS.lk)
• See The Three Basic Facts of Existence, II: Suffering (BPS.lk, Wheel #191/193)

Myths we've been told our whole life (video)

Ven. Ñanamoli; Pablito's Way; Seth Auberon, CC Liu, Amber Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Kids, you'll go blind, I tell you, blind. - C'mon, dad, what are you talking about?

What are some myths we've been told our whole life? That Eve gave Adam an apple as the forbidden fruit?  [More likely, according to textual clues, it was a magic mushroom; DMT="magic"; the Christian Apocrypha states that it was a grape from which came alcohol, the ruin of Man.] That we can see the Great Wall of China from space? Find out more about lies that we've been told.

"Whatever IS will be WAS."

— Ven. Ñanamoli

 

Everything is permanent?

Ven. Ñanamoli, The Three Basic Facts of Existence: I. Impermanence (Anicca), Wheel No. 202/203/204 (Buddhist Publication Society, BPS.lk) edited by Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly

Here, Adam, have a flower. - Thank you, my love, but I'm really in the mood for fruit.

Wow, Serpent was right about 'shroom fruit.

If we contemplate even a tiny stretch of the vast range of life, we are faced with such a tremendous variety of life's manifestations that it defies description.

Yet, three basic statements can be made that are valid for all animate existence, from the microbe up to the creative mind of a human genius. 

These three features common to all life were first found and formulated over 2,600 years ago by the Buddha, who was called a "Knower of the Worlds" (loka-vidu). They are the Three Characteristics of Existence, that is, characteristics or marks of all that is conditioned (dependently arisen). These three basic facts of all existence are:

1. Impermanence (anicca): All things change.
2. Disappointment (dukkha): All things are unsatisfactory.
3. Not-self (anatta): All things are unsatisfactory.

The first and the third apply to inanimate existence as well, while the second (disappointment) is, of course, only an experience of the animate.

The inanimate, however, can and very often is, a cause of unsatisfactoriness for living beings. For instance, a falling stone may cause injury, or loss of property may cause mental pain. In that sense, the three are common to all that is conditioned, even to what is below or beyond the normal range of human perception. 

• Adam was NOT the first human, for the Bible tells us Genesis makes it clear that Adam was not the first... 
• Adam and Eve weren't the first humans, According to the Bible... “Paul certainly assumed that Adam was a person and the progenitor of the human race... 
• Geneticist searches for DNA of "Adam," the first human (National Geographic) Geneticist searches for DNA of "Adam," the first human. "Our DNA tells the story of the journey of our species." DNA studies suggest that all humans descended from a single African ancestor who lived 60,000 years ago.

Existence can be understood only if these three basic facts are realized, not only logically but by one's own direct experience. Insight-wisdom, which is the ultimate liberating factor in Buddhism, consists just of this thorough-going experiential perception of the Three Characteristics applied to one's own physical and mental processes, which is deepened and matured in vipassana or "insight meditation."

 

To see things as they really are means seeing them consistent with the Three Characteristics. Ignorance of these three, or self-deception about them, is by itself a potent cause of disappointment -- by knitting, as it were, the net of false hopes, of unrealistic and harmful desires, false ideologies, false values and aims of life, in which we are caught.

Ignoring or distorting these three basic facts only leads to frustration, disappointment, and despair. But we ignore or distort in hopes of relief, escapism, and happiness.

 

Hence, from a positive and negative angle, this teaching on the Three Basic Facts of Existence is of vital importance. — Ven. Nyanaponika More

(TheRichest) 90 Amazing Facts To Make On Instantly Smarter

STRESSED OUT, best song of 2015? (video)

Twenty One Pilots; Genius.com; CC Liu, Ashley Wells, Seth Auberon, Wisdom Quarterly

Twenty One Pilots got famous with "Tear in My Heart" (official twentyonepilots.com).

 

It's tough being animated

(Fueled by Ramen) "Stressed Out" by Josh and Tyler as Twenty One Pilots, a music video from the album Blurryface (iTunes) available now.

LYRICS (Genius)

I wish I found some better sounds no one's ever heard
I wish I had a better voice that sang some better words
I wish I found some chords in an order that is new
I wish I didn't have to rhyme every time I sang
 
I was told when I get older all my fears would shrink
But now I'm insecure, and I care what people think

My name's Blurryface and I care what you think
My name's Blurryface and I care what you think

[CHORUS]

It's tough being a  kid.

Wish we could turn back time to the good old days
When our momma sang us to sleep, but now we're stressed out
Wish we could turn back time to the good old days
When our momma sang us to sleep, but now we're stressed out
 
Sometimes a certain smell will take me back to when I was young
How come I'm never able to identify where it's coming from?
I'd make a candle out of it, if I ever found it
Try to sell it, never sell out of it, I'd probably only sell one
Give it to my brother, cause we have the same nose, same clothes, home grown, a stone's throw from creek we used to roam
But it would remind us of when nothing really mattered
Out of student loans and tree house homes, we all would take the latter [ladder (lol)]

My name's Blurryface and I care what you think
My name's Blurryface and I care what you think

(JimKim) Cursing my government...she's my carver or my "karma"?

See our "Emotional Roadshow."

Wish we could turn back time to the good old days
When our momma sang us to sleep, but now we're stressed out
Wish we could turn back time to the good old days
When our momma sang us to sleep, but now we're stressed out

Used to play pretend, give each other different names, we would build a rocket ship, and then we'd fly it far away
Used to dream of outer space, but now they're laughing at our face singing, "Wake up, you need to make money!" yeah
Used to dream of outer space, but now they're laughing at our face singing, "Wake up, you need to make money!" yeah

Wish we could turn back time to the good old days
When our momma sang us to sleep but now we're stressed out
Wish we could turn back time to the good old days
When our momma sang us to sleep but now we're stressed out
 

It's tough being a toddler.

We used to play pretend, used to play pretend, money
We used to play pretend, wake up, you need the money
Used to play pretend, used to play pretend, money
We used to play pretend, wake up, you need the money

Used to play pretend, give each other different names, we would build a rocket ship, and then we'd fly it far away
Used to dream of outer space, but now they're laughing at our face saying, "Wake up, you need to make money!" yeah

What is "stressed out"?
Ven. Nyanatiloka edited by Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly

Buddhist Dictionary (Ven. Nyanatiloka)

(1) "pain" or painful feeling, which may be bodily or mental. (See sensation, vedanā).
  
(2) "Stress (distress and eustress), disappointment, unsatisfactoriness, suffering, ill, woe, misery. As the first of the Four Noble Truths (sacca) and the second of the Three Marks or Characteristics of Existence (ti-lakkhana).

Existence in the world makes me cry.

The Buddhist term dukkha is not limited to painful experience as under (1), but refers to the unsatisfactory nature and the general insecurity of ALL conditioned existence and phenomena which, on account of their impermanence, are all liable to disappointment, pain, and suffering -- and this includes also pleasurable experience.

Hence "unsatisfactoriness" (lack of fulfillment, dissatisfaction, lack of an ability to find fulfillment in phenomenal things and planes of rebirth) or "liability to suffering" would be more adequate translations of the term, if not for stylistic reasons.

Therefore, the first noble truth does not deny the existence of pleasurable experience, as is often wrongly assumed. This is illustrated by the following Buddhist texts:
 

Ahh, that's it!

"Seeking satisfaction in the world, followers, I had pursued my own way. That satisfaction in the world I found. Insofar as satisfaction exists in the world, I have well perceived it by wisdom.

"Seeking for misery in the world, followers, I had pursued my own way. That misery in the world I found. Insofar as misery exists in the world, I have well perceived it by wisdom.

"Seeking for an escape from the world, followers, I had pursued my own way. That escape from the world I found. Insofar as an escape from the world exists, I have well perceived it by wisdom" (A.iii.105).

Definition

Wisdom Quarterly and AccessToInsight.org

Dukkha means not getting what I want and getting what I don't want...and no fulfillment.

 

What is the Buddha's definition of stress, suffering, unsatisfactoriness, or dukkha? "Birth is dukkha, aging is dukkha, death is dukkha; sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair are dukkha; association with the unloved is dukkha; separation from the loved is dukkha; not getting what one wants is dukkha. In short, the Five Aggregates of Clinging are dukkha" (SN 56.11).

What's "dukkha"?

NOTE: No single English word adequately captures the full depth, range, and subtlety of the crucial Pali language term dukkha. Over the years, many translations of the word have been used ("stress," "unsatisfactoriness," "suffering,"  "disappointment," etc.) Each has its own advantages in a given context, but it also has its shortcomings.

There is value in not letting oneself get too comfortable with ANY one particular translation of the word, since the entire thrust of Buddhist practice is the broadening and deepening of one's understanding of dukkha until its roots are finally exposed and eradicated once and for all.

A helpful rule of thumb: As soon as you think you've found the single best translation for the word, think again. For no matter how we describe dukkha, it is actually always deeper, subtler, and more unsatisfactory than that. More

Why do we stay?

"If there were no satisfaction to be found in the world, beings would not be attached to the world....

"If there were no misery to be found in the world, beings would not be repelled by the world....

"If there were no escape from the world, beings could not escape therefrom" (A.iii.106)."

• See dukkhatā
• For texts on the "Truth of Suffering (Stress)," see The Word of the Buddha by Ven. Nyanatiloka (BPS.lk) and Path to Deliverance by Ven. Nyanatiloka (BPS)
• See The Three Basic Facts of Existence II: Suffering (Wheel 191/193)