..续本文上一页rd Buddha (Parinibbaana Sutta).
It is ignorance that leads to rebirth, i.e., to sorrow; thus it is in knowledge that the great problem of life and death must be solved. To understand that decay, disease, death, sorrow, lamentation, grief, woe and despair are unsatisfactory does not require much understanding indeed. But to understand that birth is suffering, it is necessary to know that birth is not only the physical process in which a living being appears in this world, but also the mental conception that is followed by craving. It is the birth of the defilements (kilesajaati): greed, hate, delusion, pride, false belief, scepticism, sloth, agitation, unscrupulousness and recklessness of consequences. It is the birth of actions (kammajaati) that will give rise to effects (vipaakajaati). Understood in this way, any existence is evil, for it is arisen from craving and offers fresh fuel for ever-renewed craving. But to understand that life itself with all its beauty and joy is suffering, one must have tasted and understood the impermanency of life. Experience and understanding both are necessary. For if transience is only experienced, it might well become a new source of fresh delight which keeps away the boredom and the tedium of constant and unchanging beauty and joy. Is not the sea made beautiful by the rise and fall of her waves
Do not the different seasons add to the attraction of nature
Does not a change of food add to better appetite, a change of climate to better health
But the fact that our craving ever wants a new supply of new delights must lead to disappointment, because the supply is not always at our command. Not to understand this is ignorance of the first Noble Truth of the universality of sorrow. To miss this point is to miss the whole of Buddhism. No introduction, no argument can be of any use. He who finds happiness in suffering, who is satisfied with what he has, will never seek beyond. The understanding, the realization of sorrow, of life as sorrow, is a growth of insight. No fruits can be expected of a seedling; growth is necessary and development, till at the proper season from the fading blossom of transience, will ripen the fruit of understanding.
What matters it, if that fruit be bitter in taste, as long as it cures the chronic disease of craving
Sorrow, if recognized as a by-product of “self,” may become the means, may open the road to Deliverance, as the proper diagnosis of an illness is the first step, the chance for a cure.
But the sorrow, the suffering, on which the Lord Buddha based his doctrine of actuality and deliverance, is more than pain-laden affections. The five aggregates of clinging (pa.tcupadaanakkhandhaa), the psycho-physical composition of mind and body (naama-ruupa) itself is said to be sorrow. Thus suffering is both bodily and mental; it is the imperfection inherent in life, whatever form that life may take.
A certain amount of happiness may fill the emptiness within to some extent, but that craving, like an abysmal emptiness, will never be fulfilled. Before the cup is full to the brim, it has sprung a leak at the bottom. Hence that constant thirst resulting from that fleeting happiness. When the object of craving is within reach for a moment, that craving becomes clinging (ta.nhaa-paccayaa upaadaana); but clinging is impossible because all is impermanent (anicca).
Even if one finds some little happiness through satisfying one”s desire, does this mean that complete satisfaction will give complete happiness
Because a thirsty man gets satisfaction in drinking water, everlasting bliss is not found in being drowned.
It is the want that makes one strive for satisfaction, but if that satisfaction is obtained, the need for it is no longer felt, and…
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