The Buddha shares is poignant terms his observations on the agitation all beings experience which led to his urgency to awaken.

"From harm to oneself, fear arises,

Observe the people involved in conflicts;

I will recount the urgency of awakening,

as it has profoundly stirred within me.

Seeing beings floundering,

like fish in shallow water;

Seeing them obstructed by one another,

fear overcame me.

The world is completely essence-less,

all directions are unsettled;

Desiring a sanctuary for myself,

I saw no place secure.

Indeed, at the ultimate impasse,

understanding the obstruction, discontent arose in me;

Here then, I discerned the dart,

hard to perceive and lodged deep within the heart.

Afflicted by that dart,

my mind raced in all directions;

Upon extracting that very dart,

I neither fled nor faltered.

In that regard, trainings are praised,

Those which are highly esteemed in the world,

One should not be engrossed in them;

Having fully penetrated all sense-desires,

One should train for one’s own liberation (Nibbāna)."

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These verses are from Sutta Nipāta, which contains some of the earliest teachings of the Buddha. This is an excerpt of the first 6 verses of Snp 4.15.

Verse 1: Harm to oneself here refers to performing misconducts (harm) by body, speech and mind, i.e. unwholesome kamma. As long as one acts through unwholesome kamme, i.e. produces harm, they will continue experiencing harm back.

Verse 3: The world being essence-less is a reference to all realms of existence, to the five aggregates, and to the six sense bases as being without the essence of permanence, in flux, changing, and lacking any characteristic that is eternal, permanent, free of discontentment that can be regarded as a self. Just as an illusion is essence-less.

Verse 4: The ultimate impasse is a reference to aging afflicting everything, illness afflicting everything, death afflicting everything, loss afflicting everything, obscurity afflicting everything, blame afflicting everything, pain afflicting everything.

Discerning the dart is a reference to the defilements of mind that underlie the self-harm, fear, and agitation that beings constantly undergo as they search for a safe sanctuary in the realms of existences.

Verse 5: Extracting the dart is a reference to the Buddha verifying the ending of the defilments afflicting his mind.

Verse 6: Trainings here are a reference to worldly careers: of accounting, medicine, child care, government service that are praised and regarded as prestigious. The Buddha’s advise here is to not be fully consumed by these or in these, and rather to fully understand all of one’s sense-desires and train for one’s own liberation, Nibbāna.

Related Teachings:

Rare That One Obtains the Human State (DhP 182, SN 55.48) - The Buddha is sharing in these teachings on the rarity of being born as a human being, on the rarity of being born at a time when a Buddha has arisen, and on the rarity of being born when one has gained access to the Dhamma.

The Human Condition: From “In the Buddha’s Words” by Bhikkhu Bodhi ↗️ - A collection of teachings on the human condition.