Thanissaro Bhikkhu on the Ultimate Goal

"A question that ultimately comes up is: “Is there an alternative where you don’t have to fabricate it at all?” That’s the question you pursue. And when you find the answer, that’s when things open up to something else entirely. There’s not even a sense of present moment at that point. It’s a different dimension. But as the Buddha said, it’s touched here in the body — it’s going to be experienced right where you’re experiencing the body right now. So keep working right here, because right here is where things open up. That ultimate freedom is right near the spot where in the present moment you’re making your choices, or your intentions are deciding to do this or do that. You begin to realize, as you get more skillful in these various processes that you’re bringing up to the fore, that you do have a lot of freedom of choice here in the present moment. And right next to that freedom of choice, which is conditioned freedom, there is the ultimate freedom. It’s going to be found right...

Question: I’ve come to meditation to help me bear the atrocities of the world. What is awakening? Is it a moment of conscience when one embraces all the sorrows of the world, and in that case means hello to all sorrows or is it on the contrary a state of total forgetfulness and egotism, in that case it would be hello to guilt? So, which is it? Thanissaro Bhikkhu: Neither. Remember the image of feeding. Ordinarily, we feed on the world, both physically and mentally, in order to gain happiness and maintain our identity as beings. But when you gain full awakening, the mind no longer needs to feed because it already has enough in terms of its own happiness. When you’ve reached that state, you can engage in the world without having to feed on it. You can help those whom you can help, and you don’t have to suffer in cases where you can’t help. In this way, you’re neither embracing the sorrows of the world nor are you running away from them. Instead you have a different relationship to the ...

"Total freedom. Indescribable and undefined. That’s what this practice is all about. If the idea of total freedom captures your imagination, then the difficulties get smaller and smaller. Even though they may be large in your mind right now, they start looming smaller and smaller as you stick with the path. The Buddha once said that if you could make a deal that every day for 100 years you’d be speared with 100 spears in the morning, 100 spears at noon, 100 spears in the evening — 300 spear-wounds every day — but with a guarantee that in 100 years you’d gain full Awakening, that would be a deal worth taking. When the Awakening came, you wouldn’t consider that it had been gained with difficulty. It’s up to you to decide whether you find that passage intriguing. Then again, you can look at the alternative: what life is like if you don’t." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Freedom Undefined" (Meditations3)

"All too often, there’s the idea that awakening comes by stringing yourself out until you reach the end of your rope, and then, in desperation, you go for awakening. Well, that’s not the pattern the Buddha set forth. You bring the mind to balance with a sense of well-being, a sense of completeness. That’s one of his words to describe awakening: completion. Everything comes to the culmination of its potential. In fact, that was his actual last word: achieve completion — in which the factors of the path are all fully developed and they all support one another." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Mindfulness & Effort"

"We remember [the Buddha] because he left behind his excellent example, one full of hope. He was able to take his human nature and develop to the perfection of awakening. And we’ve got that potential within us as well. So don’t see that as one more burden being placed on you, one more impossible measuring stick against which you’re supposed to measure yourself. Think of it as an opening to total satisfaction, an opportunity for total satisfaction. Those two Himalayan ranges of gold will never satisfy you, but nibbana is more than satisfying. That’s what the Buddha and all the great arahants have said. It’s up to us to decide whether we’re interested in what they say or not, whether we’re tantalized by what they say or not. But only a fool wouldn’t be interested in a possibility that good." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Perfection in an Imperfect World"