This talk was given at Parinirvana Day 2010. Suriyavamsa begins with the inevitability of death and some of our habitual attitudes to death and suffering, reading from contemporary poets. He brings out the Buddhist perspective that life and death are not separate, but parts of the same preocess.

Then the talks looks at two responses to suffering and death in the biography of the Buddha - the Going Forth and the Parinirvana.

The talks ends by looking at the Buddha's active compassion as expressed through teaching the Dharma, concluding that metta is the only true response to the problem of suffering.

The first half of the talk looks at the Buddha's early life and his battle with and the defeat of Mara. Then Dassini looks at the traditional Buddhist concept of time, and the division of time into Kalpas, inconceivably lengthy periods of time.

The talk concludes by looking at the Dharma niyama, the order of conditionality through which the attainment of Enlightenment is possible.

Please not that as this talk progresses there is some sound disturbance that gets louder as the talk goes on. Apologies for this.