Saṃsāra Holds No True Happiness

📖Master’s Reading

We often think that if only we attain wealth, fame or love in the world, we will find true happiness. Yet when we quietly realize the "faults of saṃsāra," we see the truth of life: the nature of saṃsāra is in fact suffering. In this Sahā world, neither gods nor beings in the hells can attain ultimate ease.

The worldly happiness we cling to and chase is often only a very brief "feeling." When that fine feeling disperses, or when we face the four bodily sufferings of birth, ageing, sickness and death, and the spiritual torments of not getting what we want and parting from loved ones, suffering always returns like a shadow. For a moment's brief joy the ordinary being must pay the price of long suffering, letting the soul revolve endlessly in saṃsāra.

To see through the truth that "the six realms of saṃsāra hold no ease" is not to become pessimistic and passive, but to see through the nature of these fleeting phenomena. When you understand that worldly happiness may change at any moment, the heart naturally gives rise to a strong "renunciation" of the red dust. Only by no longer clinging to illusory pleasure and actively seeking the liberation of the mind can we transcend the heavy bondage of birth, ageing, sickness and death, and find the ultimate ease that never falls back.

🌱Reflection for Daily Life

• See through fleeting illusory pleasure; renunciation brings ultimate ease.
• Understand that worldly happiness is all a fleeting feeling.
• See through the nature of saṃsāra and do not blindly chase pleasure.
• When gain and loss stir, remind yourself not to cling.
• Give rise to renunciation of the red dust and seek liberation.