The Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering : หน้า 79/263

The Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering After explaining the Noble Truth of Suffering, Lord Buddha continued with an explanation of the origin of suffering. He pointed to craving as the origin of suffering — craving for rebirth in the Cycle of Existence leads living beings to continue to be reborn again and again in the various planes of existence. He taught that being enamoured with sense pleasures i.e. images, sounds, perfumes, tastes and touch keeps beings prisoner. The sense pleasures are like fetters which force living beings to continue to arise and pass away in the Cycle of Existence, and to have to endure the implicit suffering, all the way from the suffering of birth, to old age, illness and death — just as if one were being stalked endlessly by the grim reaper who is ready at all times to terminate one’s life with a slash of his sickle. The life of beings is thus unspeakably difficult, dying in suffering from one realm and being born into more suffering in another realm — dying from there into yet another, and the cycle goes on and on, for as long as beings are subject to craving, the fetter that keeps all beings as captive travellers in the Cycle of Existence.