Second, there is the suffering of conscious beings that know the distance between what they desire and what they achieve, and who are aware of the passing nature of all things. In other words, happiness does not last forever, and there is suffering involved in change. Third, there is suffering which arises out of the actual nature and make-up of human beings. In other words, suffering is inherent in what human nature is, and this is known as suffering arising from the state of being. "Awareness is not a state of gloom or despondency; it is, rather, the realistic observation of the way things happen to be." This leads us to the difficult question: who or what is the "self"? There is in fact, according to the Buddhist, no self. There is only the human density, made up of the elements and energy that have surged together in a particular human form that are in a constant state of change. The sense of a "self", or of being an individual, is a result of the way in which physical things and forces have been combined in human form. It is, in a sense, the realization that the states that represent a human being are no more permanent than those that make up a flower or a leaf on a tree. As such, suffering does indeed exist, but it arises from an interpretation that comes about from the condition known as being human.
The eternal hope for Buddhists consists of successive reincarnations into better lives until one achieves the goal of being free from pain and suffering, and thus does not have to come back again. This wheel of rebirth, known as samsara, goes on forever or until one achieves Nirvana. The Buddhist definition of Nirvana is "the state when suffering ceases because the flames of desire are no longer fuelled. It is a state of unconditioned-ness and uncompounded-ness beyond any form of known or imagined existence." This ultimate goal of Nirvana represents total enlightenment and liberation.
