Cessation of suffering is the main goal of Buddhism, but is cessation of suffering the end goal or does Buddhism pursue Joy beyond end of suffering?

Socrates here is talking about pain vs. pleasure, not about suffering in the Buddhist meaning of the word. In Buddhism, suffering is a condition that includes all of our responses to pain, pleasure, and neutral feeling. Those three are facts of life, and they are fundamentally of equal status.

The existential suffering a Buddhist wants to remedy arises, not because of pain, but due to clinging to pleasure, reacting with aversion to pain, and becoming blank and ignorant in response to anything that arouses a neutral feeling.

Joy isn't a goal in Buddhism, but it is a desirable consequence of practice and a quality of an enlightened being's life, as long as one doesn't cling to the "pleasure" aspect of it and expect it to become a permanent state. It rises and falls along with everything else, and recognizing that is part of overcoming the suffering of life.

From Dhammapada 203-204:

203. Hunger is the worst disease, conditioned things the worst suffering. Knowing this as it really is, the wise realize Nibbana, the highest bliss.

204. Health is the most precious gain and contentment the greatest wealth. A trustworthy person is the best kinsman, Nibbana the highest bliss.

From here, we can see that "Nibbana is the highest bliss" is the translation of "nibbanam paramam sukham".

Nibbana may not be joy that is ecstatic (piti) but is rather happiness that is blissful (sukha). Nibbana is certainly not described here as stoic quietitude.

In the Niramisa Sutta (trans1, trans2, trans3), you can also find detailed descriptions for:

• worldly joy / rapture of the flesh / carnal rapture
• unworldly joy / rapture not of the flesh / spiritual rapture
• worldly happiness / pleasure of the flesh / carnal pleasure
• unworldly happiness / pleasure not of the flesh / spiritual pleasure

The word piti is used for joy or rapture here and the word sukha is used for happiness or pleasure. However, the unworldly or spiritual rapture and pleasure are associated with jhana states in this sutta, rather than Nibbana.

Hence, the best translation of sukha in association with Nibbana is bliss.

The quest for Nibbana, is therefore the quest for blissful happiness.

Middle Path. Pursuing joy beyond end of sufferings is also a suffering. Cessation of suffering is good enough.

Let my person bring a Sutta and a simile into here:

• 1. Noble Truth:

Whoever sees pleasure as stress, sees pain as an arrow, sees peaceful neither-pleasure-nor-pain as inconstant: he is a monk who's seen rightly. From that he is there set free. A master of direct knowing, at peace, he is a sage

gone beyond bonds.

iti 53

• The second and third:

Carrying a Rock

"Letting go" actually means this: It's as if we're carrying a heavy rock. As we carry it, we feel weighed down but we don't know what to do with it, so we keep on carrying it. As soon as someone tells us to throw it away, we think, "Eh? If I throw it away, I won't have anything left." So we keep on carrying it. We aren't willing to throw it away.

Even if someone tells us, "Come on. Throw it away. It'll be good like this, and you'll benefit like that," we're still not willing to throw it away because we're afraid we won't have anything left. So we keep on carrying it until we're so thoroughly weak and tired that we can't carry it anymore. That's when we let it go.

Only when we let it go do we understand letting go. We feel at ease. And we can sense within ourselves how heavy it felt to carry the rock. But while we were carrying it, we didn't know at all how useful letting go could be.

• The fourth Noble Truth

[Note: This is a gift of Dhamma and not meant for commercial purpose or other low wordily gains by means of trade and exchange.]

Cessation of suffering is a source of joy by itself

Ud 2.10

[The Buddha:] "Is it true, Bhaddiya that, on going to a forest, to the foot of a tree, or to an empty dwelling, you repeatedly exclaim, 'What bliss! What bliss!'?"

[Ven. Bhaddiya:] "Yes, lord."

"What meaning do you have in mind that you repeatedly exclaim, 'What bliss! What bliss!'?"

"Before, when I was a householder, maintaining the bliss of kingship, I had guards posted within and without the royal apartments, within and without the city, within and without the countryside. But even though I was thus guarded, thus protected, I dwelled in fear — agitated, distrustful, and afraid. But now, on going alone to a forest, to the foot of a tree, or to an empty dwelling, I dwell without fear, unagitated, confident, and unafraid — unconcerned, unruffled, my wants satisfied, with my mind like a wild deer. This is the meaning I have in mind that I repeatedly exclaim, 'What bliss! What bliss!'"