PART ONE

Questions from the City

What now, Brothers, is the Noble Truth of Suffering?

Birth is suffering; decay is suffering; death is suffering; sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair are suffering; not to get what one desires is suffering; in short, the Five Aggregates of Existence are suffering.

THE WORD OF THE BUDDHA

—Ven. Nyanatiloka Thera

 

The truth of suffering is a universal experience, for it is some-thing inherent in the very fabric of life itself. What we make of this realization, however, is what will ultimately determine our spiritual fate: yet another round of rebirth in a million more rounds—or, finally, the exit to that realm of highest bliss, permanently and eternally beyond the reach of suffering.