Understanding Craving and Suffering in Buddhism : หน้า 86/263

ing after such wealth, even though it is acquired by honest means, is still subject to suffering because it contains craving which is the origin of suffering. Even the craving for the Brahmā-world and the Formless Brahmā-world still trap living beings in the cycle of existence. An example of those who have craving for the Brahmā-world [bhavaṭaṅhā] or the formless Brahmā-world [uibhavatanaḥa] are those who strive in meditation by calm [samatha] and insight [vipassanā]1 and who set their heart on being born in the Brahmā-world or the formless Brahmā-world by the ignorance of the false view of eternalism (sassadadîṭṭhi or ucchadadîṭṭhi), thinking that those born their are unaffected by old age, sickness or death. Such craving is an origin of suffering, because it is hankering after something that keeps one prisoner in the Cycle of Existence, constantly dying and being reborn. This is why the Lord Buddha pointed to craving as the Origin of all suffering. Liberation entails the extinguishing of the Three Cravings Meditators who reflect wisely on the dangers of the Cycle of Existence and Suffering, are wont to strive in the performance of skillfulness such as generosity, keeping the Precepts, continuous meditation on the Three Universal Characteristics [ti-lakhana] — impermanence, suffering and not-self — and reflection on the virtues of the Triple Gem, with the practice of meditation by calm and insight with the wish to escape from birth in the cycle of existence — and the attainment of Nirvana constantly in mind. There is no other way to escape rebirth in the cycle of existence and extinguish 1. Samatha-vipassanā meditation (samathakammaṭṭhāna /vipassanākammaṭṭhāna) is composed of two interacting components — tranquility [samatha] which entails making the mind still and insight [vipassanā] which is the wisdom and understanding of the world as it really is — the latter arising from the mind which is still.