I found a sutta that expresses what I tried to explain in #1 of my above comment. The basic idea is that a puthujjana believes that ultimate happiness is in external “things” like houses, cars, etc.
But a Noble Person (Ariya) sees it precisely the opposite way. Attachment to such worldly things is the cause of future suffering.
I found a sutta that expresses it well: “Paṭhamarūpārāma Sutta (SN 35.136).”
The English translation there is good enough except for the following verse to make it more clear:
@ 4.2: “sakkāyassa nirodhanaṁ” means “stopping the sakkāya (pancupadanakkhandha.) The first step in doing that is to remove sakkāya ditthi (the wrong view that pancupadanakkhandha is beneficial; one tries to acquire luxury houses, fancy cars, etc, on that wrong view).
The following is a critical verse (and the translation is good) @ marker 5.1:
“Yaṁ pare sukhato āhu, tadariyā āhu dukkhato“
Translated: “What others say is happiness, the noble ones say is suffering.” (Here, tadariyā is “tad” (that) + “Ariya” leading to “that one conventionally accepted as “happiness” an Ariya sees as suffering.”) Also, “pare” means “others” or “non-Ariyas” or puthujjana.
In the above example of acquiring luxury items (fancy houses, cars, and things that exceed one’s basic needs), one goes through much effort (sankhara dukkha) to acquire those. But at death, there is nothing to show for it. Because of any immoral deeds done in that process, one may even get a bad rebirth (leading to more dukkha dukkha.) A subtle aspect there is the embedded “viparinama dukkha” because just the process of cultivating such sankhara takes one away from the “pure mind” (pabhassara citta), i.e., in the wrong direction of “viparinama” (read my explanation of parinama/viparinama in the above comment).
