1. Attaching to anything not only with raga but also with dosa or moha (avijja) will eventually lead to suffering.
- The main point is that the suffering does not end until attachment to worldly things stops.
- Suffering ends when a mind fully understands the above statement. That understanding comes in four stages: Sotapanna, Sakadagami, Anagami, and Arahant.
2. Your second question, “Does having pleasure cause pain after a period of time?” is also explained with my answer in #1 above.
- By “suffering,” the Buddha meant something more profound than physical pain.
- Each act of attachment may not lead to pain or suffering in the sense that the average human understands.
- The simplest way to look at it is as follows: Until we stop attachment to worldly things (worldly pleasures and anything in the world), Paticca Samuppada cycles run. That will perpetuate the rebirth process. Every birth, regardless of even in a Deva or Brahma realm) ends in death. Thus, suffering does not end until that attachment stops.
- The key point is that attachment cannot be stopped by willpower. It has to come through understanding how the rebirth process takes place via Paticca Samuppada.
- Paticca Samuppada stops in four stages. Those that lead to rebirths in the apayas (including the animal realm) stop when one becomes a Sotapanna. Those that lead to rebirths in the kama loka (human and Deva realms) stop when one becomes an Anagami. Rebirth in all 31 realms stops when no Paticca Samuppada process can operate, which happens at the Arahant stage.
- The key point, again, is that if there is a birth, it ends with death; that means each birth starts with guaranteed suffering!
