suffering is a very good teacher, and we would do well to heed the lessons that it dishes out
yes
which is why the OP about Confucius is not really the way
it is doubt great progress will be made by trying to equal another
it really starts with your own mind & your own experience, learning to be one with what is happening within, until knowing how to be 'one' turns into samadhi
once there is samadhi, the real path begins because samadhi is not the end but the beginning
all path winners know Nibbana, whether they are a stream-enterer, once-returner, non-returner or arahant
the stream-enterer, whilst not extinguishing all defilement, can comfortably abandon 'self'-clinging (asamimana; sakaya ditthi) so is at ease just like a Buddha, despite not reaching the heights & purity of a Buddha
