♦The Self-Life♦ How the universe became thus maimed, and creatures born to the misery of separation came into being, the Buddha did not inquire, even as he did not inquire into the problem of a First Cause which set the chain of causation in the universe in motion. He took the situation as he found it, and applied himself to it. If separation from the universe, that is, a separate existence or being, be the evil, clearly the only possible remedy must be to end the separation. The Buddha broke away from previous Indian teaching on one point; to the Brahman, Soul in the universe and soul in man are the central fact; Soul, either in the Brahman sense, or in the sense in which we understand it, Buddhist teaching denies. The being of man is composed of certain elements in addition to the body or material part. These are:--Sensations, Ideas, Tendencies, and Powers; and it is these which make up the consciousness of existence--the Self. As soon as a Self is born, that is, a being apart from the only true Centre, it becomes its own centre. It has no knowledge, but it sees that which is outside of itself, and supposes that there must be joy in drawing towards itself, in possession. ♦Desire♦ It therefore begins to feel outward from itself, to _desire_; and then to attempt to grasp that which it desires. Whatever be the result of that grasping, whether success or failure to attain the desire, sorrow, suffering, and loss are the inevitable end. “_This, O recluses, is the noble Truth concerning suffering. Birth is painful, and so is old age; disease is painful, and so is death; union with the unpleasant is painful, painful is separation from the pleasant; and any craving that is unsatisfied, that too is painful._” The Effect of that Cause--a Self apart from its true Centre--is, as it ought to be,--misery. II ♦The Sacred Truth of the Cause of Suffering♦ “_Now this, O recluses, is the noble truth of the origin of suffering. Verily it originates in that craving thirst which causes the renewal of becomings, is accompanied by sensual delight, and seeks satisfaction, now here, now there; that is to say, the craving for the gratification of the passions, or the craving for a future life, or the craving for success in this present life._” ♦The Self-life the Cause: Misery the Effect♦ The self-life, then, is the cause of suffering. The Self attains its desire only to lose it again, or in the very attainment to find disappointment, and so suffering. The Self fails of its desire, and again it suffers.