Thanissaro Bhikkhu on the Ultimate Goal

"We have the example of the Buddha. That’s made a huge impact on the world, showing people that it is possible to get out. And we are getting out . We’re not just deciding that we’re going to stay here and be in the present moment and accept that as our goal. The goal is to get out. This is a place where we can’t live. One of the Buddha’s common images is of a house on fire. Everything in the present is on fire, being destroyed. All these fabrications that we’re creating can’t be a place to stay. Because as soon as we do them — and they are things that we do — as soon as we do them, they’re not going to just stay there. They ignite and disappear. You have to keep doing them again and again and again. You did it yesterday and today you have to do it again and tomorrow you have to do it again. One moment to moment to moment, you have to keep at it. Even with the concentration you have to keep doing it. You can’t just settle in and say, “Okay, I’ll relax.” It’s relatively restful c

"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.