Dukkha

Zania

I have been practising Buddhism for some time so you would think I know this by now but a question occurred to me. Dukkha is known as unsatisfactoriness or suffering. For example I buy a new car which will begin to fall apart as soon as I drive from the showroom because of Annica. Is dukkha the suffering I feel when such things happen which is created by my own thought/perception about it? So therefore without a mind there is no such thing as dukkha or is dukkha in the actual thing itself? I'm thinking that pain is just pain. The mind tells a story about it and dukkha is then felt. Would this be correct? Thank you.

federica

Yes, I think so, pretty much. With no attachment, there is no dukkha.
It's perception.
Once we come to accept the natural evolution, decay, ageing, passing of every single thing we see and know - dukkha ceases to arise.

As they say, pain may occur, but suffering is optional.
The Buddha knew pain and physical suffering.
But he attached no negative mental connection to it.

pegembara

Pain is physical but suffering or dukkha is mental. The Buddhist path is to end dukkha.

"Now, the well-instructed disciple of the noble ones, when touched with a feeling of pain, does not sorrow, grieve, or lament, does not beat his breast or become distraught. So he feels one pain: physical, but not mental. Just as if they were to shoot a man with an arrow and, right afterward, did not shoot him with another one, so that he would feel the pain of only one arrow. In the same way, when touched with a feeling of pain, the well-instructed disciple of the noble ones does not sorrow, grieve, or lament, does not beat his breast or become distraught. He feels one pain: physical, but not mental."

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn36/sn36.006.than.html

namarupa

Suffering is actually a good description for the word dukkha although some would disagree. I do not think it is meant to be difficult to describe. Generally the word sufferring should suffice I believe.

As far as what causes dukkha and how it originates, that is something that we have to investigate for ourselves. The answers might not be the same because there are different levels of Suffering, but the hint that is given is that the root cause is cravings.

BhikkhuJayasara

It is impossible to translate Dukkha into one word but I've found what works for me best is that Dukkha can grammatically be translated as "difficult to bear", so it is everything in life that is difficult to bear. I think this can be understood by most people, wherever they are in their spiritual development.

The Buddha Definition of Dukkha is this =

"Birth is dukkha, aging is dukkha, death is dukkha; sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, & despair are dukkha; association with the unbeloved is dukkha; separation from the loved is dukkha; not getting what is wanted is dukkha. In short, the five clinging-aggregates are dukkha."

You expect that when you buy a car, it wont fall apart, at least so soon. Your expectations were thwarted and that situation fits into three of the situations in the Buddha's definition (seperation from the loved, not getting what one wans, and union with what one dislikes)

lobster

Very good question and answers. Particularly liked the idea of accepting the inevitability of Dukkha. There is a release in knowing Dukkha happens.

@Zania said:
I'm thinking that pain is just pain.

Indeed. Still sucks though. No need to add complications as @pegembara illustrated so well ...

The flower, car or life may fade. We can still find vibrancy and joy - increasingly ... for example we can become kinder and that is very real ...

DairyLama

@lobster said:> Very good question and answers. Particularly liked the idea of accepting the inevitability of Dukkha. There is a release in knowing Dukkha happens.

I think the release comes in understanding why it happens.