What is meant by liberation from samsara? Buddhism teaches us to seek for happiness and to overcome sufferings.

Nonetheless with such a simple formula, one needs to know what constitutes happiness and what is not. Sufferings to many are camouflaged with materialistic happiness. At the end, we - living within the flourishes of creative technology, and wealth of fashions and fame - have our mind kept too busy to even detest this indulgence of samsara. Rather comfortably with our obscured mind we tag them as happiness. Buddha with his great great great compassion, has thus propounded at huge volume to tell us what is the true suffering and its sources, and the true happiness arisen when no such sufferings occur and the methods leading us to that goal of happiness. As each word of Buddha is meant for each being to achieve the ultimate happiness, these teachings are called the four noble truths: truth of suffering, truth of the origin of the suffering, truth of cessation and truth of the path. Whats the wrong of enjoying my wealth that is derived from hard earning hours? Someone may argue. In the context there is no wrongdoing with the enjoyments. Working for a better living and innovation for better healthcare system or technology to improve convenience are good values for human. However, when the mind submerged within this enjoyment, potency of sufferings incurs when afflictions arise. Those afflictions are to name the few such as sufferings of losing the attached enjoyment, hatred when this enjoyment was robbed away, jealousy when others have more enjoyments than oneself etc. As afflictions arisen as such we responded with non-virtuous actions, there will be a corresponding suffering effect later in this life or next lives. And with the result of this suffering effect ripened, one may create another unhappy cause. Likewise, again and again, the future will subject to this cycle of sufferings, helplessly. Buddha has detailed this in 12 links of dependent origin. With this far sight of fear of cyclic existence, we have to liberate from this cyclic of existence. Why? As Lama Tsongkhapa stated in verse 3 of The Three Principle Aspects of Englightenment: Without the complete intention definitely to be free from samsara, There is no way to pacify yearning for the joys and fruits of the ocean of samsara; Since craving for cyclic existence chains us continuously and thoroughly, at the very beginning seek renunciation. So long there is karma and afflictions, we are only plagued by

sufferings. We are bounded to rebirths involuntarily and into realms relentlessly by our karma and repeatedly in the cyclic existence. Recognised the sufferings thus becomes the first in enumerating the four noble truths. And when recognized the sufferings, naturally we will seek to free from them. Thus we should bring suffering to the path of enlightenment by understanding what is suffering. Understanding the dictation of cause and effect, by avoiding the cause, we should seek to understand the truth of origin to eliminate our sufferings which forms the second truth. As listed in the eight types of sufferings; sufferings of birth, old age, illness, death, encountering what is unpleasant, separation from what is pleasant, not getting what you want and the five appropriated aggregates, our body is filled with suffering from birth to death, and intermitted with conditions against our will. Naturally we are born as vessels to contain sufferings as can be seen further in these six types of sufferings: suffer from endless rebirths with each time discarding our old bodies, going alone with no others to count on, at a high chance to be born in lower realms of sufferings and when we enjoy pleasures, satisfaction is always insatiable. In a simple presentation, these sufferings can be classified as the three sufferings as: suffering of change, suffering of pain and suffering of pervasive conditioning. Change is the nature in every object and phenomenon. With such impermanence, we see process ends at any rate and at any time and with our grasping of permanence, this becomes a suffering. Suffering is itself a suffering be it pains and hardship. Suffering of conditioning is however more subtle in that our body coexists with tendencies so when karma is ripened and jammed up with afflictions within our mind, conditions for sufferings occur. For instance we can refer to the three mental poisons giving rise to sufferings as such: attachment increases when pleasant feelings arise; anger increases when pains increase; ignorance increases when grasp things as permanent. With analysis we can evident in these examples, suffering of conditioning can source through to ignorance in giving rise to misperception for karma actions. Further analysis shows suffering of conditioning can give rise to both suffering of change and suffering of pains, and suffering of change can give rise to sufferings of pains. By recognizing the sufferings, we should trace to suffering of conditioning, and one step forward, trace to ignorance created the misperceptions of reality. Hence to eliminate the origin of suffering is to eliminate the root cause of all sufferings. To do so, it is to deal with ignorance. Among the three mental poisons, ignorance is the root for all afflictions by having a wrong view of the reality. The same approach is presented in the twelve links of dependent origination with ignorance as the first link. Under ignorance we subject ourselves to

afflictions and create karma that propels us into the cyclic existence. The first link, ignorance, creates the eight and ninth links as craving and grasping by obscuring our minds from the true nature of reality and thus distorts the way we apprehend objects as self-existence. Under Madhyamaka school, no objects or phenomena is truly exist at its own side, but they exist conventionally on the basis of parts, or by labels or simply as dependent arising. By craving for not separating from pleasant sensations and craving for separation from painful feelings, mental poisons such as attachments and aversions arise. Thus grasping arises as consequence. This is the origin of suffering due to afflictions. The second and tenth links, compositional activity and becoming form the origin of suffering due to karmic action, since karma has been accumulated countless along the fact that our mind stream is beginningless. In fact these two karma seeds are also a result of ignorance that projects samsaric existence for the creation of these two. The rest of the 7 links constitute the truth of suffering: consciousness, name and form, six senses, contact, feeling, and birth, up to aging and death. Since our luminous mind is not fused with ignorance, we find ourselves opportunity to separate our mind from ignorance. When we are free of ignorance, we are free of suffering. When we are free of sufferings, happiness arises. One can examine the fact that pleasures usually arise upon relief of sufferings. Likewise, when we are free of ignorance, we actualize the cessation of sufferings and that is the result of ultimate happiness as stated in the third noble truth to cease suffering and its origin. To actualize this, we need to cultivate the methods which form the path of enlightenment by actualizing the cessation within our minds. By gaining insight into the true nature of reality, we cut through the deception of ignorance. Thus the path of enlightenment is developing the wisdom to gain the insight and this is the fourth noble truth. As propounded by the four noble truths the two states from samsara to enlightenment exist within our mind in respond to our mind deluded by ignorance to mind free of delusion by the gains of insight. The four noble truths present the path as such: the first two truths illustrate the cause (truth of origin) and effect (truth of suffering). The truth of suffering creates the samara which chains us. Liberation from the samsara show us the method to cut the cyclic existence (truth of path) and we achieve ultimate happiness (truth of cessation). Therefore, seeking liberation is the path to enlightenment. Then how could one achieve liberation? Lama Tsongkhapa presented this in the verse 4: From cultivating the attitude that this human life is so hard to find, and we have no time to spare, preoccupations with this life will cease; by repeatedly contemplating

the truth of karma and samsaric suffering, preoccupations with the next lives will cease. This shows that we need to abandon this life and future lives by intent thought of sufferings with the knowledge of our current human rebirth is so precious, and yet impermanent in nature, we may lose it any time and since white karma is scarce and black karma pervades our actions, we fear the suffering in the lower realms. To assist our conviction of this fear, we are told that beings are constantly swept away by four powerful rivers, tightly bound with fetters of karma most difficult to escape, trapped inside the iron cage of self-grasping and enveloped in thick mists of ignorance. With the spotlight of ignorance, we are trapped without escape but only create more bad karmas and as the result we are chained in this cyclic existence. We should contemplate on this with fears until there is not even a second admiring this samsara then our practice of liberation is realised. This is explained in the verse 5: When, by having trained in that way, there is no arising, even for a second of attraction to the perfections of cyclic existence. And all day and night the intention seeking liberation arises then the thought of renunciation has been generated. This is what is meant by liberation from samsara. When one is disgusted by the cyclic existence at every second, fear of sufferings with strong faith in karma, looking our to maximize every moment the current impermanent but precious human rebirth, he will work on diligently the methods to gain insight to cut through his deluded mind rooted with ignorance, with the ultimate goal of cessation of suffering and its origin. Nonetheless of our fear as explained, the same goes to our mother sentient beings. Thus, Lama Tsongkhapa says: Even if renunciation has been developed, If it is not possessed by the mind of enlightenment It does not become the cause of the perfect bliss of unsurpassed enlightenment Therefore the wise generate the supreme mind of enlightenment. Word counts 1720.