The Quest for Knowledge and Happiness : หน้า 11/216

Preface Why, since the existence of mankind, have we unceasingly put all of our resources in order to search for newer knowledge and technology? Taking this question back to its roots, we will eventually come across this answer: Mankind was born with ignorance, suffering, and fear. Why are we ignorant? We do not know the answer to any of these following questions: where were we before we were born, why were we born, how long do we have left to live, and where will we go after death? Yet, we still become angry when people call us stupid! To complicate the matter, throughout life we are destined to encounter sufferings. This means that, at one time or another, we will feel the pains of hunger, sickness, aging and death. Suffering is a part of life. The unpleasant consequence of suffering is fear. The more that we do not know, the more sufferings we experience. All because we do not know! Even worse, some of us begin to know but still make the same mistakes. The more sufferings we experience, the more we are confronted with fear. Therefore, the real knowledge that mankind needs to search for is that which will completely eradicate our ignorance, suffering and fear. In simpler terms: “because we dislike pain and suffering, we need happiness. Because we need happiness we should be in search of something that can end all of our suffering and give us that everlasting happiness". Through