Fear, anger, anxiety, depression, sorrow, grief, lamentation, pain, displeasure, and despair are sufferings. If one has experienced any of the above frequently, he can attest from his personal experiences that life is full of suffering (instead of blindly believing it). Buddhists are taught to see reality as it really is instead of wishing to see what one wants to see. It is called Right View. In other words, Buddhists see for themselves that life is full of sufferings; others are either oblivious about it or simply remain in denial. However, accepting the fact (that life is full of sufferings) is not meant for Buddhists to feel negative about life. Instead, it is to arouse the urgency to find ways of relief and path to cessation of sufferings. One must recognize that there is a problem before he can start looking for a solution. If one is in denial and unwilling to accept the reality, his sufferings will gradually increase with age since he doesn’t seek for inner peace and is not walking the path to cessation of suffering. When a Buddhist finally attains Enlightenment, he will cease to have any suffering. No more fear, anger, anxiety, depression, sorrow, grief, lamentation, pain, displeasure, and despair.
Accepting the truth that there is a problem to solve is just the first step. One must also identify the cause. All sufferings are caused by craving and clinging. “When one dwells contemplating gratification in things which can be clung to, craving increases. With craving as condition, clinging comes to be; with clinging as condition, existence; with existence as condition, birth; with birth as condition, aging-and-death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, displeasure, and despair come to be. Such is the origin of this whole mass of suffering.” This is the second truth. The third step to solve the problem is, of course, to eliminate the cause; i.e. sufferings cease when one stop having craving and clinging. The fourth question is: how to eliminate the cause of the problem? The Buddha have found the answer and shared with us the fourth truth: the path leading to cessation of sufferings is the Noble Eightfold Path, namely Right Views, Right Thoughts, Right Speech, Right Actions, Right Livelihood, Right Efforts, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration.
Some people say “Ignorance is bliss”. This is not wrong at a certain time and space. One has sufferings (fear, anger, anxiety, depression, sorrow, grief, lamentation, pain, displeasure, and despair) because he thinks about the problem and he thinks too much. If one doesn’t think, has no remorse about the past and no worry about the future, but lives happily in the present moment, he will not have any suffering. This is the key to cessation of suffering: being ignorant (in the right way) about the past and the future.
In Chan Buddhism, there is a saying: “The beginner sees mountain as mountain and sea as sea; the path-enterer sees mountain as not mountain and sea as not sea; the path-attainer sees mountain as still a mountain and sea as still a sea.” The beginner sees suffering as suffering. The path-enterer sees suffering as not suffering. In other words, he endures the suffering and accepts it as something he must experience. He doesn’t wish otherwise; in this way, his suffering decreases because he sees it as a normal phenomenon, as normal as having to wake up every morning and go to work everyday. The path-attainer sees suffering to the human body as still suffering. However, he doesn’t consider the body as the self, or the self is inside the body, or the body belongs to the self. Pain to the human body is like damage to a vehicle body. Path-attainer has no suffering; the human body which experiences pain is not the same thing as the path-attainer. In this way, the path-attainer experiences cessation of suffering. He is unborn and deathless. He has no fear, anger, anxiety, depression, sorrow, grief, lamentation, pain, displeasure, and despair about this body which is impermanent and not fit to be called the self.
Novice Buddhists see that life is full of sufferings. More advanced Buddhists accept the truth and find relief for the sufferings. An Enlightened Buddhist sees that life of ordinary beings is full of sufferings but he has no suffering simply because he is selfless. There is no problem to solve. What has to be done has been done, and there is no more coming back to this Samsara or cycle of rebirth.
“Monks, when one dwells contemplating danger in things that can be clung to, craving ceases.
With the cessation of craving comes cessation of clinging; with the cessation of clinging, cessation of existence … cessation of birth … aging-and-death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, displeasure, and despair cease.
Such is the cessation of this whole mass of suffering.
“Suppose, monks, a great bonfire was burning, consuming ten, twenty, thirty, or forty loads of wood, and a man would not cast dry grass, dry cowdung, or dry wood into it from time to time.
Thus, when the former supply of fuel is exhausted, that great bonfire, not being fed with any more fuel, lacking sustenance, would be extinguished.
So too, when one lives contemplating danger in things that can be clung to, craving ceases.
With the cessation of craving comes cessation of clinging; with the cessation of clinging, cessation of existence … cessation of birth … aging-and-death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, displeasure, and despair cease.
Such is the cessation of this whole mass of suffering.” — Saɱyutta Nikāya, II. Nidāna Vagga, 12. Nidāna Saɱyutta, Sutta 52, Upādāna Suttaɱ
RESILIENT KID 