Ajahn Chah

This attachment can then be a cause of suffering.

The Buddha saw from his own experience that such peace of mind was not the ultimate.

The causes underlying the process of existence had not yet been brought to cessation.

the conditions for rebirth still existed.

His spiritual work had not yet attained perfection.

Why?

Because there was still suffering.

So based on that serenity of Samatha, he proceeded to contemplate, investigate and analyse

the conditioned nature of reality, until he was free of all attachments, even the attachment to serenity.

Serenity is still part of the world of conditioned existence and conventional reality.

Clinging to this type of peace is clinging to conventional reality.

And as long as we cling, we will be mired in existence and rebirth.

Delighting in the peace of Samatha still leads to further existence and rebirth.

Once the mind's restlessness and agitation calms down, one clings to the resultant peace.

So the Buddha examined the causes and conditions underlying existence and rebirth.

As long as he had not yet fully penetrated the matter and understood the truth,

he continued to probe deeper and deeper with a peaceful mind, reflecting on how all things, peaceful or not, come into existence.

his investigation forged ahead until it was clear to him that everything that comes into existence is like a lump of red hot iron.

The five categories of a being's experience are all a lump of red hot iron.

When a lump of iron is glowing red hot,