Thanissaro Bhikkhu on the Ultimate Goal

"And even in the relative comfort we have here, when you actually gain a taste of the Deathless, you realize that ordinary sensory experience is extremely painful compared to what the Deathless is. So even the pleasures we have here have pain built into them. We use those three perceptions to remind ourselves of that, so that we don’t get complacent, say, “Well, what I’ve got is good enough as it is.” You look around. It’s unstable, whatever well-being you have that’s short of the Deathless. And because it’s unstable, it’s going to be a cause for suffering. So why identify with it? There must be something better. That’s the discontent with skillful qualities. So our teacher is the Anti-slacker or what you may call an Unslacker. If we want to do well on the path he laid out, we have to be anti-slackers and unslackers as well. Because our suffering is our problem. No matter how much someone else may tell us it’s no big deal, we know for ourselves that it is a problem. And no one el

"We create lots of havoc, not only in our own lives, but also in the lives of others, simply because we don’t even know what our desires are. We think we want something and we find out, “Well, that’s not what I want,” and we want to throw it away. We barge through life like this, creating huge messes. So getting to know your own desires and gaining some control over them requires sitting down very quietly with a mind that’s steady and solid, and looking at what you really want in life. You’ve got the choice. Choose your desires well so that you create good becomings. Ultimately, of course, as the Buddha said, the best thing to do is to go beyond becoming this person or becoming that person. With arahants, as he said, you can’t define them because people define themselves around their desires and their attachments, whereas someone who has no desires, no attachments — because they’ve found true happiness — can’t be defined. As far as they’re concerned, the question of who they are

"True happiness can be gained through human action, but it lies in a dimension beyond the confines of space, time, and change. It’s the best possible goal. In some cases, it can be attained in this life, but in others it may take two lifetimes or many more. So, the perfections ask you to take the attitude of a marathon runner. Pace yourself and be ready for the long term so that you don’t give up before you’ve arrived at the goal." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Good Heart, Good Mind: The Practice of the Ten Perfections"

"Whenever talking about awakening, there are always two dangers. The first danger is thinking that awakening is so far away that you give up any hope of attaining it. The other danger comes from the fact that there are many stages of concentration that sound very similar to awakening, and if you attain one of those you may think that you’ve attained awakening when in fact you haven’t. You’re still stuck in a fabricated state. In both cases, the danger lies in giving up your pursuit of being more skillful in your actions. The path to the end of suffering exists, but you stop or turn around. One way to avoid these dangers begins with having a right understanding of both kamma and mindfulness." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Kamma & Mindfulness Together"