Suffering Page
Suffering
Return to Upeksha, Four Noble Truths
"It's easy to end all suffering. Simply accept everything with ease and let go completely." If you can't remember that he says just remember "Let go completely". -- from the Venerable Buddhist Master Shen-Kai - Founder of Jen Chen Buddhism (Buddhahood Lineage World Humanity Vehicle)
Suffering (Skt. duḥkha; Tib. སྡུག་བསྔལ་, dukngal, Wyl. sdug bsngal) is the first of the four noble truths|four truths of the noble ones taught by the Buddha in his first teaching:
:What is suffering? It is the pain that accompanies birth, growing old, falling sick, and dying. It also includes the suffering of meeting the unpleasant and parting from the pleasant. Not finding what is being sought is also suffering. In short the five perpetuating five aggregates|aggregates are suffering. This is what we call suffering.
::—Lalitavistara Sutra[Source: The Play in Full, 26.61, translated by the Dharmachakra Translation Committee under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha. Read [http://read.84000.co/translation/UT22084-046-001.html here].]
Subdivisions
In the quote above, eight types of suffering are identified; namely the sufferings of:
*birth,
*old age,
*sickness,
*death,
*meeting what is unpleasant,
*parting from what is pleasant,
*not finding what is being sought, and
*the five aggregates.
The noble eightfold path, which is part of the truth of the path, is taught as an antidote to these eight types of suffering.
These eight types of sufferings can also be condensed into three types of suffering|three:
{{:Three types of suffering}}
Notes
Alternative Translations
*frustration
*stress (Jon Kabat-Zin)
Further Reading
*Patrul Rinpoche, The Words of My Perfect Teacher (Boston: Shambhala, Revised edition, 1998), pages 78-92, describing the sufferings of the human realm.
Category:Key Terms
Category:Four Noble Truths
Category:Four Aspects of the Truth of Suffering
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