Understanding the Root of Suffering : หน้า 96/263

up, but to get rid of the suffering in a way that it will not grow up again, it is not enough simply to cut off the branches and the twigs — the tree must be completely uprooted — that is craving, the root of suffering, must be extinguished first. **Extinguishing Suffering means Extinguishing Craving** The necessity of dealing with craving as the origin of suffering instead of dealing with suffering alone can be compared to a clever lion, continuously hunted down by a hunter with a gun. The lion could ensure its safety by seizing the hunter’s gun — but the safer alternative is to seize the hunter. For as long as the hunter is still alive the lion is at risk. It is no use for the lion to waste his time with the bullets or the gun. Similarly, the explanation of the cessation of suffering by the Lord Buddha deals entirely with uprooting craving. The Lord Buddha could be compared to the lion and craving to the hunter with his gun. Suffering was like the bullets from the hunter’s gun. Thus the practitioner who wishes to be liberated from all suffering in the cycle of existence should follow the Buddha’s example, dealing with suffering at the root and extinguishing craving. Every Buddha who has arisen in the world has had the mission to uproot craving — but where the Buddhas are said to conduct themselves like lions, other persuasions of ascetics are said to conduct themselves no better than dogs. The nature of dogs is to scavenge and to seize anything they find without any consideration for what the owner might think. In the same way, ascetics who practice various sorts of self-mortification only add to their own suffering — they sleep on the ground, on thorns, some sit surrounded by fires, some stare at the sun until dusk — all with the belief that such 94