ABSTRACT
The Buddha never explicitly addressed the question of the meaning of life, so what follows must be somewhat speculative. The Buddha does not subscribe to this account of the value of liberation: it is not compatible with the key Buddhist doctrine of non-self. The Buddha claims that sentient existence as ordinarily lived is predominantly suffering. That mortality plays a prominent role in the suffering targeted by the Buddha also comes out in a discourse where the Buddha singles out the experience of observing great pain and death of others as the goad that reliably initiates renunciation of the householder's life. The Buddha was well aware that the non-self view is highly counter-intuitive. It is sometimes claimed that nirvana, the goal of Buddhist practice, is a state that transcends any possible description. Buddhists distinguish between two kinds of nirvana or cessation of suffering: cessation with remainder and without remainder.
