Thanissaro Bhikkhu on the Ultimate Goal

"If you want to get the mind under some control, if you want to have control over your life, you’ve got to get the mind on one object and learn how to keep it on one object. When you have it on that one object, then you’re freeing yourself from a lot of unskillful things that are going on in the mind. The Buddha’s teachings are all about freedom, how we can be free from our defilements. The teachings he gives are all about how to do that. Generosity teaches you how to free yourself from your stinginess. Virtue teaches you how to be free from impulses that are going to be harmful. Meditation teaches you how you can free yourself from the suffering the mind ordinarily creates for itself. One of the ironies in life is that nobody’s forcing us to suffer, yet we all suffer from our own actions. The things we do, the things we say, the things we think about can bring a lot of suffering on us — and yet we keep doing it. Nobody’s forcing us. The Buddha’s saying you’re free not to do that....

"We have to pay very close attention to our intentions. It may seem like we’re are focusing on little tiny things when the vast space of the unconditioned is all around us, just waiting to be found, but you don’t find the unconditioned by getting spacey. You find it by paying very close attention to what you’re doing, catching yourself in the act of creating suffering and then learning how to let go, i.e., how to stop doing that. It’s in seeing unskillful intentions, learning to drop them, and dropping them with awareness: That’s where the knowledge for awakening will arise. So it’s in looking at the details that you’re going to open up to something larger. A lot of people don’t like that idea. They’d rather just let go of their lives and messes they’ve created. Instead of trying to straighten out their messes, they’d like to say that the messes don’t matter, because the mind will then open up to something bigger, and somehow the messes will take care of themselves. You’ve got to ...

"Whatever attachments were causing suffering, whatever ignorance was causing the diseases of the mind — greed, anger, and delusion: That ignorance can be gone for good. That’s the good news of the Buddha’s teaching. Even though there are things in the world that change and are impermanent, the effect that the Dhamma can have on the mind when it’s used with precision is once and for all. The suffering can be gone for once and for all. So do your best to master this skill. Do your best to get the mind in position so that you can apply that skill with precision. When the Buddha talks about knowing for yourself, this is how he recommends you go about it. It’s not just a matter of sitting around and deciding that you like or dislike a particular teaching. It’s seeing where it’s properly applied. That’s when you really come to appreciate the power of the Dhamma." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Breath Meditation, Step by Step"

"Even arahants make mistakes. Their virtues in terms of the basics of a virtuous life — the five precepts — are unshakeable. They don’t make those mistakes any more, but simple mistakes in saying the wrong thing to the wrong person: That’s human. It has nothing to do with defilements of the mind. It’s simply the fact that we’re human beings with limitations. What’s different about arahants is that they continue to learn from their mistakes. They don’t get knocked off course by them because they have no conceit that’s going to be challenged by the mistake, destroyed by the mistake, or feel threatened by the mistake." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "The Path of Mistakes" (Meditations4)