Q38. What is the world full of?
~ By Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu ~
Some people with a certain outlook answer, ‘This world is full of suffering (dukkha).’ For instance, they say that only dukkha arises, only dukkha persists, and only dukkha passes away. This is correct in its own way, but it is hard to understand.
The question should be answered as the Buddha answered it: ‘This world is full of empty things. This world is empty. There’s nothing that is "self" or that belongs to "self."'
Don’t be satisfied with saying simply, ‘In the world there is only suffering, there’s nothing that is not suffering.’ Although a correct statement, it is ambiguous and liable to be misinterpreted, for those same things, if one doesn’t grasp and cling at them, aren’t suffering at all. Let this be well understood. Neither the world nor any of the things that comprise the world is or ever has been in itself suffering.
The moment one grasps and clings, there is suffering; if one doesn’t grasp and cling, there’s no suffering. To say that life is suffering is shallow, oversimplified, and premature. Life grasped at and clung to is suffering; life not grasped at or clung to isn’t suffering.
This life has purpose, it isn’t pointless. Some people like to say that life has no meaning because they don’t know how to give it meaning. If we know how to use this life as an instrument for finding out about the world, about the causes of the world’s arising, about the thorough quenching of the world, and about the way of practice leading to the thorough quenching of the world, then life does have purpose. Life, then, is a means of studying, practicing, and obtaining the fruits of practice. It is a means of knowing the best thing that human beings can and ought to know, namely, Nibbāna. So remember, this life does have purpose, although for the fool who doesn’t know how to use it, it has no purpose at all.
What is the world full of? From one point of view, you might say, ‘It’s full of suffering,’ or simply ‘It’s suffering.’ From a higher point of view, you can say there is only a process of phenomena arising, persisting, ceasing, arising, persisting, ceasing. With grasping and clinging, suffering is produced. Without grasping and clinging, phenomena simply continue arising, persisting, and ceasing on their own. So we must bear in mind that someone who is freed and arahant, doesn’t regard these things as suffering, nor as happiness either. The unsoiled pañcakkhandha (five aggregates, body-mind complex) of arahants can’t be said to be involved in suffering. There is only the causally conditioned flowing, changing, and revolving of the five aggregates.
What is the world full of? It is full of things that arise, persist, and cease. Grasp and cling to them, and they are suffering (dukkha). Don’t grasp and cling to them, and they aren’t suffering.
(From “Buddha-Dhamma for Inquiring Minds”)
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Buddha-Dhamma for Students (title of original translation) was composed of two talks given by Ajahn Buddhadāsa in January 1966 to students at Thammasat University, Bangkok. It was translated from the Thai by Rod Bucknell, and revised in 2018 by Santikaro Upasaka. To read/download as free ebook (pdf).
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Photo: Buddhadāsa Indapañño Archives N-155