Thanissaro Bhikkhu on the Ultimate Goal

"There was a piece recently about how Buddhists ought to get off of their cushion and get out there in the world and deal with the real causes of suffering, which are rooted in society. But the author was totally missing the point. The real causes are in here. The Buddha himself saw that you could change the world, but it would never be enough for people. As he said, even if it rained gold coins, it wouldn’t be enough for one person’s sensual desires. So the pursuit of an ideal or a perfect world out there is never-ending. And a lot of people, in creating a perfect world, can create a lot of messes and harm for other people. The word for perfection that they use in the Canon applies to qualities you develop in the mind. That’s where perfection can be found. The world is always going to be imperfect, but there is such a thing as perfect happiness. And it doesn’t harm anyone. It doesn’t place any burdens on anyone at all. The Buddha gives us that test for what counts as Dhamma. Fir

"The texts identify a total of ten fetters that keep the mind bound to the processes of further becoming. In addition to the first three [uncertainty, self-identity views, and grasping at habits and practices], these are: sensual desire, ill will, passion for form, passion for what is formless, conceit, restlessness, and ignorance (AN 10:13). Only on the fourth level of awakening, arahantship, do all ten fetters fall away. As a number of suttas say, on the lower levels of awakening you may have seen the Dhamma, but you don’t yet dwell “touching it with your body” (SN 48:53; SN 12:68). In other words, you have yet to experience it in a lasting, all-around way. This means that there is more work to be done." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "The Stream to Unbinding"

"You develop a sense of dispassion. Notice, dispassion’s not saying we’re going to kiss and make up and pretend that everything is okay. Things are not okay. That’s the underlying condition of samsara: It’s not okay . And if you want closure, samsara’s not going to provide it. Part of the mind doesn’t like the idea that there are all these dangling ends that are not tied up. But our lives are nothing but dangling ends. How many dangling ends are left over from your previous lives, you have no idea. We’ve been going through samsara with lots of ends dangling. The only closure is to admit that the whole business is not okay and it’s time to get out. It’s only when you get out that you’re really free. So when hurtful memories come up like this, remind yourself that as a meditator you now have new tools and a new identity: the person who’s mastered those tools. That changes the narrative and heads it toward the only point of genuine closure — nibbana — which no longer involves ill wi

Question: One wants to attain nibbāna, the absolute peace, the ultimate, the perfect absorption. Does that mean that life as it is does not suit you? Thanissaro Bhikkhu: You look at life around you and you see a lot of aging, illness, and death. You see a lot of people making a lot of effort to attain things and then they’re taken away from them. You find people so upset with their lives that they kill themselves. In other words, you look at the sufferings in life, and you see things constantly fading away, fading away, being stripped away, and you ask yourself, “Isn’t there something better?” That’s why we go for nibbāna. So, the answer to this first question is Yes, but if you look at the issue in another way, you can see that the possibility for nibbāna is also part of life. And that’s what actually gives brightness to life. ~ The Five Faculties: Putting Wisdom in Charge of the Mind

"The fact that we’ve trained ourselves to be more and more skillful leads the mind in the direction of less and less suffering. It inclines the mind in that direction. If you don’t make it all the way to the Deathless in this lifetime, your quest for skillfulness insures that your next lifetime will keep heading in that direction. You build up a momentum. So do your best to head your mind in that direction." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Anger" (Meditations2)