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A good post by Krodha (Kyle Dixon):
https://www.reddit.com/r/Buddhism/comments/1iw09yv/comment/mea8tri/
“Ending suffering” in a Buddhist context means ending the cycle of rebirth, that is essentially the entire purpose of these teachings. There are a lot of other implications that accompany that liberation, but that is essentially what “suffering” characterizes.
Why do this? Well these teachings state that we’ve been essentially mired, or trapped in this cycle of suffering for countless eons. Joined with and separated from friends and family, dying terrible deaths as myriad types of sentient beings, any and all types of horrors, dying of illness, dying in war, starving to death, watching loved ones succumb to these same horrors. Over and over and over again.
The Buddha awakened to realize the nature of phenomena and said that sentient beings suffer because they are simply deluded regarding the nature of things. Thus the Buddhas teach the dharma to liberate beings from the tortuous existence of samsāra.
The Samādhirāja says:
Thus the understanding of fools is a conceptualization of empty phenomena. Engaging in conceptualization, they are doomed to the six existences.
Beings undergo rebirth and aging; there is no end to their being reborn. There is no end to the suffering of skandhas that are born and die.
The suffering of birth and saṃsāra is the conceptualization of foolish understanding. This does not cease throughout eons; beings continue in saṃsāra for millions of eons.
They continue in the performance of activities, whether that of engagement or disengagement. They delight in the actions they perform, but those activities will not liberate them.
They are carried along on a river of actions, and their actions will have no end. They will die over and over, always dwelling in the realm of the māras.
Overpowered by the māras, with poor understanding, they act through being afflicted by the kleśas. They experience births and deaths that take place in various worlds.
Those various beings who are blind fools, they proceed toward death. They are killed and destroyed, and their existences are terrible.
Those with foolish understanding kill each other with weapons. By continuing with that kind of activity their sufferings only increase.
Those with foolish understanding think, “my sons” and “my wealth.” They conceive of that which has no existence and thereby continue to extend saṃsāra.
John Tan, 2006: "Life is like a passing cloud, when it comes to an end, a hundred years is like yesterday, like a snap of a finger. If it is only about one life, it really doesn’t matter whether we are enlightened. The insight that the Blessed One has is not just about one life; countless lives we suffered, life after life, unending…Such is suffering.
It is not about logic or science and there is really no point arguing in this scientific age. Take steps in practice and experience the truth of Buddha’s words. Of the 3 dharma seals, the truth of ‘suffering’ to me is most difficult to experience in depth.
May all take Buddha’s words seriously."
- Linked Discourses 15.13
- Chapter Two
Thirty Mendicants
Near Rājagaha, in the Bamboo Grove. Then thirty mendicants from Pāvā went to the Buddha. All of them lived in the wilderness, ate only almsfood, wore rag robes, and owned just three robes; yet they all still had fetters. They bowed to the Buddha and sat down to one side.
Then it occurred to the Buddha, “These thirty mendicants from Pāvā live in the wilderness, eat only almsfood, wear rag robes, and own just three robes; yet they all still have fetters. Why don’t I teach them the Dhamma in such a way that their minds are freed from defilements by not grasping while sitting in this very seat?”
Then the Buddha said to the mendicants, “Mendicants!”
“Venerable sir,” they replied. The Buddha said this:
“Mendicants, transmigration has no known beginning. No first point is found of sentient beings roaming and transmigrating, shrouded by ignorance and fettered by craving.
What do you think? Which is more: the flow of blood you’ve shed when your head was chopped off while roaming and transmigrating for such a very long time, or the water in the four oceans?”
“As we understand the Buddha’s teaching, the flow of blood we’ve shed when our head was chopped off while roaming and transmigrating is more than the water in the four oceans.”
“Good, good, mendicants! It’s good that you understand my teaching like this. The flow of blood you’ve shed when your head was chopped off while roaming and transmigrating is indeed more than the water in the four oceans. For a long time you’ve been cows, and the flow of blood you’ve shed when your head was chopped off as a cow is more than the water in the four oceans. For a long time you’ve been buffalo … rams … goats … deer … chickens … pigs … For a long time you’ve been bandits, arrested for raiding villages, highway robbery, or adultery. And the flow of blood you’ve shed when your head was chopped off as a bandit is more than the water in the four oceans.
Why is that? Transmigration has no known beginning. … This is quite enough for you to become disillusioned, dispassionate, and freed regarding all conditions.”
That is what the Buddha said. Satisfied, the mendicants approved what the Buddha said. And while this discourse was being spoken, the minds of the thirty mendicants from Pāvā were freed from defilements by not grasping.
