the inside. Taking all of these things into account, the satasfaction of any given desire isn't going to change the person you are. (unfortunatly, we'll find out later that there is no 'self' to change) Winning $60,000 isn't going to make you a better person (unless you share it with me), and having your lover leave you for an (ugly) stripper isn't going to make you any less than what you are. You're still a beautiful person on the inside, or evil rotten bad. The series of losses and gains one experiences during a lifetime isn't going to change who you are on the inside. Any attempt to change that person is going to have to begin inward. Other pursuits of happiness will prove self defeating. This is the Second Noble Truth which states that misery originates within us from the craving for pleasure and for being or non-being. Buddha identifies this is as Tanha, which translates as desire, mores specifically, the desire for private fulfillment. One must realize that we suffer because we become tangled in a web of our own attachments. When we take pleasure from something, it is in our nature to grow attached to it. The more we indulge in a particular pleasure, the more the attachment grows and even the possibility of separation from the pleasure results in suffering and misery. Tanha causes dukkha because a selfish desire arises from ignorance of Anatta. Every time we long for something that we do not possess we suffer. Probably the most significant craving is for that of a self. It is what underlies all suffering. One of the most puzzling aspects of the Buddha's teachings is the idea of no self. If there's no self, who gets angry, who falls in love, who makes effort, who has memories or gets reborn? What does it mean to say there is no self? Sometimes people are afraid of this idea, imagining themselves suddenly disappearing in a cloud of smoke, like a magician's trick. ...
