Clinging to things is the way to suffering

Ajahn Chah (ajahnchah.org) via Ven. Sujato, Ellie Askew, Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

Clinging never works. Even the Buddha taught that millennia ago (amylansky.com).

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The cause of suffering [pain, disappointment, unfulfillment] is clinging to things. So we should get rid of the cause, cut it off at the root, and not allow it to cause suffering again.

Therefore, people have only one problem – the problem of clinging. Just because of this one thing [which is rooted in ignorance and associated with aversion], people will kill each other.

All problems, be they individual, family, or social, arise from this one root. Nobody wins. They kill each other, but in the end no one gets anything. It's all pointless.

I don’t know why people keep on killing each other. Possessions, power, praise, status, happiness, and suffering, these are the worldly dhammas ["things"].

These worldly dhammas engulf worldly beings. Worldly beings are led around by [eight] worldly dhammas:

• gain and loss,
• acclaim and slander,
• status and loss of status,
• happiness and suffering.

These dhammas are troublemakers if we don’t reflect on their true nature.