The real purpose of life is to avoid suffering and to gain happiness. In other words, in our subconscious minds, we all hope to live more comfortably and do not wish for any suffering. In order to achieve happiness, there are many ways to find it. So, why choose Buddhism?
Buddha is the most successful being in this context, because he has avoided all suffering, and gained all the happiness in the universe. As all of us want what Buddha has already acheived, it is necessary to learn Buddhism. In addition to that, there is no better path we can find! We can think of many reasons not to learn Buddhism, but Buddhism is the most complete “cause” for complete happiness. Only when we find the complete “cause” for happiness, can we attain complete happiness.
So even though we share a common goal, if we have not found the correct “cause” for happiness, the result will definitely be wrong. Although everyone wants no suffering, because we have not found the correct “cause” of happiness, whatever we do will be a blatant waste of time and life in the end. And not only that, one may very well get the opposite result of what one seeks - suffering. So based on this reason, the only option we have is to learn Buddhism.
(Excerpt from Master Jihchang Dharma Seminar 1995)