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I've quoted part of what I hear as an insightful text that I came across below; I think it relates to some of the problems in interpreting and understanding Buddhism; btw I'm not a Buddhist but I can appreciate parts of its teachings. (highlight and underline below by me) ------------------ "....The First Noble Truth is not a dismal metaphysical statement saying that everything is suffering. Notice that there is a difference between a metaphysical doctrine in which you are making a statement about The Absolute and a Noble Truth which is a reflection. A Noble Truth is a truth to reflect upon; it is not an absolute; it is not The Absolute. This is where Western people get very confused because they interpret this Noble Truth as a kind of metaphysical truth of Buddhism - but it was never meant to be that. You can see that the First Noble Truth is not an absolute statement because of the Fourth Noble Truth, which is the way of non-suffering. You cannot have absolute suffering and then have a way out of it, can you? That doesn’t make sense. Yet some people will pick up on the First Noble Truth and say that the Buddha taught that everything is suffering..." ----------------- Thus my pov about the Tibetan wheel of life where it shows a Buddha (or Buddha nature) in each of the realms - is that the Buddha (or Buddha nature) is not suffering there-in because of non-attachment through wisdom and compassion to such realms. Further then, escape 'so to speak' is really to Buddha nature and thus not necessarily or only outside the Wheel per-se, although outside of it's various states of conditioning.