ordered
for disciplinary or other mysterious motives by what is vaguely called
One above, that it would disappear or be explained if we could
contemplate our world as forming part of a larger universe, that "there
is some far off divine event," some unexpected solution in the fifth act
of this complicated tragedy, which could justify the creator of this
_dukkhakkhandha_, this mass of unhappiness--for all such ideas the
doctrine of the Blessed One has nothing but silence, the courteous and
charitable silence which will not speak contemptuously. The world of
transmigration has neither beginning nor end nor meaning: to those who
wish to escape from it the Buddha can show the way: of obligation to
stop in it there can be no question[441].

Buddhism is often described as pessimistic, but is the epithet just?
What does it mean? The dictionary defines pessimism as the doctrine
which teaches that the world is as bad as it can be and that everything
naturally tends towards evil. That is emphatically not Buddhist
teaching. The higher forms of religion have their basis and origin in
the existence of evil, but their justification and value depend on their
power to remove it. A religion, therefore, can never be pessimistic,
just as a doctor who should simply pronounce diseases to be incurable
would never be successful as a practitioner. The Buddha states with the
utmost frankness that religion is dependent on the existence of evil.
"If three things did not exist, the Buddha would not appear in the world
and his law and doctrine would not shine. What are the three? Birth, old
age and death." This is true. If there were people leading perfectly
happy, untroubled lives, it is not likely that any thought of religion
would enter their minds, and their irreligious attitude would be
reasonable, for the most that any deity is asked to give is perfect
happiness, and that these imaginary folk are supposed to have already.
But according to Buddhism no form of existence can be perfectly happy or
permanent. Gods and angels may be happier than men but they are not free
from the tyranny of desire and ultimately they must fall from their high
estate and pass away.

4

The second Truth declares the origin of suffering. "It is," says the
Buddha, "the thirst which causes rebirth, which is accompanied by
pleasure and lust and takes delight now here, now there; namely, the
thirst for pleasure, the thirst for another life, the thirst for
success."