Thanissaro Bhikkhu on the Ultimate Goal

"Some agendas don’t even like the idea that there might be a deathless happiness. To follow those agendas is to destroy ourselves, but we go ahead and destroy ourselves willingly because we see easy happiness all around us — the pleasures of having a family, the pleasures of having money, the pleasures of having a job — and we’d rather not look at the pain that comes with having a family, the pain that comes with having money, the pain that comes with having a job. We see at least that these pleasures are visible here and now. And for something we haven’t yet seen, we’re not willing the make the gamble, especially when we see that the path requires sacrifice. You have to give up certain of your pleasures, but that’s the way it is with the world. It’s only the human potential movement that has told us that if we cultivate our potentials then we can have everything we want: beauty, wealth, power, a great spiritual life, a great sexual life, the whole shmear. Part of us would really ...

"I don’t know how many times I’ve heard people depict the Buddha’s teachings like this: There really is no happiness in the world, and contentment lies in just admitting that fact and basically giving up on the search for happiness and learning how to be equanimous and unaffected by anything. That’s the best that can be expected. There is no transcendent. There’s nothing unconditioned. It’s just a matter learning how to accept where you are. That’s almost too depressing to think about, if that’s what it was all about. But fortunately, it’s not. The Buddha did find an ultimate happiness, one that is totally satisfying — so totally that it’s more than anything you could think about, more than anything you could imagine. Can you imagine not hungering? For most of us, just that idea stretches our imagination a lot. We’re used to being hungry and we find satisfaction in things that seem to satisfy the hunger, at least for a while. We forget that a lot of the things that are appealing i...

"It’s very sad when you hear about people saying, “Do you want happiness? An unconditioned happiness? Poor you.” What’s wrong with wanting a happiness that’s totally blameless, a happiness that doesn’t take anything away from anyone else? If you don’t have that kind of happiness, the only kind of happiness you’re going to find in life is the type that does take things from others. I was reading a while back about a teacher who said he wouldn’t want to live in a world without suffering because he wouldn’t then be able to exercise his compassion — which is a very selfish wish: You want there to be people who are suffering so that you can enjoy being compassionate to them? Your sense of well-being needs to feed off other people’s pain? What kind of ideal is that? The best possible ideal is to follow a path leading to a happiness that doesn’t depend on other people’s suffering in any way, shape, or form. Then you can show that path to other people. If they feel so moved, they can pra...

"If the aggregates were what you are, then — because nibbāna is the ending of the aggregates — that would mean that when you attain nibbāna you would be annihilated. The Buddha, however, denied that nibbāna was annihilation. At the same time, what good would be the end of suffering if it meant total annihilation? Only people who hate themselves or hate all experience would go for it." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Selves & Not-self: The Buddhist Teaching on Anattā"

"After all, nibbāna is the ultimate pleasure — the ultimate happiness, the ultimate sukha: bliss, happiness, well-being. You get to appreciate it first by learning how to appreciate what feels good right here, right now, in the body. So try to develop your sensitivity here. Learn how to savor what’s pleasurable here, because that sensitivity will reorient you, give you new ideas about what happiness is, what well-being is — and what’s needed to find it." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Savor Your Breath" (Meditations11)