What is the Cause of Suffering?

I was watching a PBS TV program narrated by Richard Gere the other night and I learned a lot about Guatama Buddha (Siddhartha Buddha) that I didn't know. For example, I finally learned why Buddha didn't emphasize things like God, or heaven so much. It was that he was trying to answer the question "What is the cause of suffering?" and he couldn't answer it as long as he was living on a grain of rice a day and doing austerities. He was only able to answer the question when he wasn't starving to death slowly or doing strange things to his body. Then in the Lam Rim or 'Middle Path' of balance or like the Greeks said, "Moderation in all things" was he able to answer this question.

So, if you want to know what the cause of your suffering is so you don't have to do that anymore don't starve yourself while trying to answer this question. Only in some kind of balance can you answer this question and get an answer that will be useful to you and others for a hundred or more years or beyond.