THE ARGUMENT

Why are you unhappy? Buddhists ask.  It is because you are filled with wanting, with longing, to the point that eventually the longing becomes a desire that cannot be satisfied, even when you achieve what you long for.   

So how can you be happy?  By ceasing to want.  Just as a fire dies down when no fuel is added, so your unhappiness will end when the fuel of wanting is removed.

Buddhism teaches that the individual determines what happens to him.  The individual, not something “out there” is responsible for his fate.  The external world only reacts to what the individual does.

The skillful person always asks, what are the consequences of my actions?  Will what I do lead to hurt of myself, of others, or of both?  (Majjhima-Nikaya I.416)

If this is, that comes to be; from the arising of this, that arises; if this is not, that does not come to be; from the stopping of this, that stops. (Majjhima NIkaya II.32)

Always remember that the price of existence is suffering, Buddhism underscores.  All sentient beings suffer. Greater than the waters in the four oceans is the flood of tears each being has shed in his lifetime, or the amount of blood each has lost when, as an animal or evil-doer, he has had his head cut off.