Is suffering necessary to offset happiness?
Is it possible to achieve absolute happiness and harmony?

Faced with these questions, the Dalai Lama responded to a Buddhist disciple: "When we talk about happiness and suffering in Buddhism, we are not referring purely to happiness at the level of feelings or sensations. From the Buddhist perspective, the obvious experience of pain is a form of identifiable suffering. But Buddhism also says that even what we classify as pleasant sensation or happiness is not authentic happiness. It is equally a form of suffering because it contains the seed for dissatisfaction. The type of happiness that Buddhism speaks of in the teaching of the Four Noble Truths is the total cessation, not only of pain and suffering but also of fluctuating emotions, etc. It is a state that goes beyond sensations and feelings."

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