Vinc wrote: ↑Wed Nov 18, 2020 2:50 pm
Thank you for you answer.
But my actual question remains: When Samsara is endless, there will always be dukkha. Why then should "I" strive for eradicating "my" dukkha, when there is not even an acutal "me" and dukkha continues to exist nevertheless?
For pursuing enlightenment making sense to me Samsara has to have the potential to end. But is it right that Buddhism says it is endless?
The Buddha didn't say it had no beginning nor that it has no end. He said it is without discoverable beginning, which is a different thing.
But my actual question remains: When Samsara is endless, there will always be dukkha. Why then should "I" strive for eradicating "my" dukkha, when there is not even an acutal "me" and dukkha continues to exist nevertheless?
There is dukkha. There is a desire to escape dukkha. Escaping dukkha is to make "I am" cease, which ceases when desire ceases. In order to get there you rely upon "I am" to get to the cessation of "I am" because "I am" is a disease. When awakening occurs and many years later when "you" die, upon the exhaustion of life, all that is felt will grow cold right there. As to what happens after, that is beyond language and reasoning:
Then Ven. Maha Kotthita went to Ven. Sariputta and, on arrival, exchanged courteous greetings with him. After an exchange of friendly greetings & courtesies, he sat to one side. As he was sitting there, he said to Ven. Sariputta, “With the remainderless stopping & fading of the six contact-media [vision, hearing, smell, taste, touch, & intellection] is it the case that there is anything else?”
[Sariputta:] “Don’t say that, my friend.”
[Maha Kotthita:] “With the remainderless stopping & fading of the six contact-media, is it the case that there is not anything else?”
[Sariputta:] “Don’t say that, my friend.”
[Maha Kotthita:] “…is it the case that there both is & is not anything else?”
[Sariputta:] “Don’t say that, my friend.”
[Maha Kotthita:] “…is it the case that there neither is nor is not anything else?”
[Sariputta:] “Don’t say that, my friend.”
[Maha Kotthita:] “Being asked if, with the remainderless stopping & fading of the six contact-media, there is anything else, you say, ‘Don’t say that, my friend.’ Being asked if … there is not anything else … there both is & is not anything else … there neither is nor is not anything else, you say, ‘Don’t say that, my friend.’ Now, how is the meaning of your words to be understood?”
[Sariputta:] “The statement, ‘With the remainderless stopping & fading of the six contact-media [vision, hearing, smell, taste, touch, & intellection] is it the case that there is anything else?’ objectifies non-objectification. The statement, ‘… is it the case that there is not anything else … is it the case that there both is & is not anything else … is it the case that there neither is nor is not anything else?’ objectifies non-objectification. However far the six contact-media go, that is how far objectification goes. However far objectification goes, that is how far the six contact media go. With the remainderless fading & stopping of the six contact-media, there comes to be the stopping, the allaying of objectification.
https://suttacentral.net/an4.173/en/thanissaro