The Real Source of Suffering

“What a bad pupil I am that I keep forgetting my own understanding. For instance, these days, often I feel the ‘need’ for companionship. Though I do not feel all that unhappy on account of the lack of fulfilment of that need, what i keep forgetting is that whatever amount of unhappiness that I experience is NOT due to the ‘lack’ of companionship but DUE TO the ‘presence of the need’ for companionship. Notice what Buddha’s Second Noble Truth says: ‘Desire is the cause of suffering’, and NOT ‘The lack of the desired person or object is the cause of suffering’. Remember it, Sam the forgetFOOL.”