Dukkha

Translations of dukkha
English:	suffering, anxiety, stress, discontentment, unsatisfactoriness, etc.
Pali:	dukkha (Dev: दुक्ख)
Sanskrit:	duḥkha (Dev: दुःख)
Bengali:	দুঃখ dukkhô
Burmese:	ဒုက္ခ (IPA: [doʊʔkʰa̰])
Chinese:	苦 (pinyin: kǔ)
Japanese:	苦 (rōmaji: ku)
Korean:	苦 (ko)
Sinhala:	දුක්ඛ සත්‍යය
Tibetan:	སྡུག་བསྔལ། (Wylie: sdug bsngal; THL: dukngal)
Vietnamese:	khổ / Bất toại
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Dukkha (Pāli; Sanskrit: duḥkha; Tibetan: སྡུག་བསྔལ་ sdug bsngal, pr. "duk-ngel") is a Buddhist term commonly translated as "suffering", "anxiety", "stress", or "unsatisfactoriness".^{[lower-alpha 1]} The principle of dukkha is one of the most important concepts in the Buddhist tradition. The Buddha is reputed to have said: "I have taught one thing and one thing only, dukkha and the cessation of dukkha." The classic formulation of these teachings on dukkha is the doctrine of the Four Noble Truths, in which the Truth of Dukkha (Pali: dukkha saccã; Sanskrit: duḥkha-satya) is identified as the first.

Dukkha is commonly explained according to three categories:

• The obvious physical and mental suffering associated with birth, growing old, illness and dying.
• The anxiety or stress of trying to hold on to things that are constantly changing.
• A basic unsatisfactoriness pervading all forms of existence, because all forms of life are changing, impermanent and without any inner core or substance.

The Buddhist tradition emphasizes the importance of developing insight into the nature of dukkha, the conditions that cause it, and how it can be overcome. This process is formulated in the teachings on the Four Noble Truths.

Centrality to Buddhist thought

The principle of dukkha is one of the most important concepts in the Buddhist tradition. The Buddha is reputed to have said: "I have taught one thing and one thing only, dukkha and the cessation of dukkha."^{[lower-alpha 2]}

Piyadassi Thera states:^{[web 4]}

To the Buddha the entire teaching is just the understanding of dukkha, the unsatisfactory nature of all phenomenal existence, and the understanding of the way out of this unsatisfactoriness.

The classic formulation of these teachings on dukkha is the doctrine of the Four Noble Truths, in which the Truth of Dukkha (Pali: dukkha saccã; Sanskrit: duḥkha-satya) is identified as the first of the four truths.

Neither pessimistic nor optimistic, but realistic

The central importance of dukkha in Buddhist philosophy has caused some observers to consider Buddhism to be a pessimistic philosophy.^{[lower-alpha 3][lower-alpha 4]} However, the emphasis on dukkha is simply a basic fact of life: clinging to temporary things and states is inherently unsatisfying.^[4] Labelling this as "negative" is a refusal to accept the reality of dukkha.^[4]

Some contemporary Buddhist teachers and translators emphasize that while the central message of Buddhism is optimistic, the Buddhist view of our situation in life (the conditions that we live in) is neither pessimistic nor optimistic, but realistic.^{[lower-alpha 4]} Walpola Rahula explains the importance of this realistic point of view:^[12]

First of all, Buddhism is neither pessimistic nor optimistic. If anything at all, it is realistic, for it takes a realistic view of life and of the world. It looks at things objectively (yathābhūtam). It does not falsely lull you into living in a fool's paradise, nor does it frighten and agonize you with all kinds of imaginary fears and sins. It tells you exactly and objectively what you are and what the world around you is, and shows you the way to perfect freedom, peace, tranquility and happiness.

One physician may gravely exaggerate an illness and give up hope altogether. Another may ignorantly declare that there is no illness and that no treatment is necessary, thus deceiving the patient with a false consolation. You may call the first one pessimistic and the second optimistic. Both are equally dangerous. But a third physician diagnoses the symptoms correctly, understands the cause and the nature of the illness, sees clearly that it can be cured, and courageously administers a course of treatment, thus saving his patient. The Buddha is like the last physician. He is the wise and scientific doctor for the ills of the world (Bhisakka or Bhaisajya-guru).

Lama Surya Das emphasizes the matter-of-fact nature of dukkha:^[13]

Buddha Dharma does not teach that everything is suffering. What Buddhism does say is that life, by its nature, is difficult, flawed, and imperfect. [...] That's the nature of life, and that's the First Noble Truth. From the Buddhist point of view, this is not a judgement of life's joys and sorrows; this is a simple, down-to-earth, matter-of-fact description.

The Buddha acknowledged that there is both happiness and sorrow in the world, but he taught that even when we have some kind of happiness, it is not permanent; it is subject to change. And due to this unstable, impermanent nature of all things, everything we experience is said to have the quality of dukkha or unsatisfactoriness. Therefore unless we can gain insight into that truth, and understand what is really able to provide lasting happiness, and what is unable to provide happiness, the experience of dissatisfaction will persist.^[9][14]

Three patterns

Within the Buddhist tradition, dukkha is commonly explained according to three patterns or categories:^{[lower-alpha 5]}

• Dukkha-dukkha (dukkha as ordinary suffering) - the obvious physical and mental suffering associated with birth, growing old, illness and dying.
• Vipariṇāma-dukkha (dukkha as produced by change) - the anxiety or stress of trying to hold on to things that are constantly changing.
• Saṃkhāra-dukkha (dukkha of conditioned states) - a basic unsatisfactoriness pervading all forms of existence, because all forms of life are changing, impermanent and without any inner core or substance. On this level, the term indicates a lack of satisfaction, a sense that things never measure up to our expectations or standards.

Dukkha-dukkha (the dukkha of painful experiences)

Translations

The Pali term dukkha-dukkha (Sanskrit: duhkha-duhkhata) is translated as follows:

• Dukkha as ordinary suffering (Rahula; Bhikkhu Bodhi)^{[15][web 8]}
• The dukkha of painful experiences (Goldstein)^[26]
• The suffering of suffering (Trungpa; Sakyong Mipham; Ringu Tulku; Dalai Lama; Geshe Tashi Tsering)^{[17][18][19][21][22]}
• Suffering of pain (Traleg Kyabgon)^[20]
• Suffering as pain (Gethin)^[16]
• The stressfulness of pain (Thanisarro Bhikkhu)^{[web 9]}
• Ordinary, everyday dukkha or difficulties (Lama Surya Das)^[24]

Description

This level of dukkha includes:

• The physical and mental sufferings of birth, aging, illness, dying.
• The anxiety or frustration of coming across what is not desirable.

Joseph Goldstein states:^[26]

First, there is the dukkha of experiences that are painful in themselves. This is where the translation of dukkha as “suffering” most frequently applies. There is the obvious suffering caused by war, violence, hunger, natural disasters, political and social oppression, and injustice. These are very real situations for hundreds of millions of people.

There is the inevitable pain of the body, starting with childbirth, and then sickness, injury, and ageing common to us all. And most likely, we won’t be feeling our best at the time of death. All of this is not a mistake; it’s just nature at work.

There’s also the optional but deeply conditioned suffering in the mind: feelings of fear, jealousy, anger, hatred, anxiety, grief, envy, frustration, loneliness. There’s a long list of what are called “afflictive emotions.” Many times, in reporting states like this to Sayadaw U Paṇḍita, he would say, “Good. Now you’re realizing the truth of dukkha.” Each time we can open to the painful experiences of mind and body, we are investigating and realizing the first noble truth for ourselves.

Geshe Tashi Tsering states:^[27]

Even animals understand the suffering of suffering. It is unpleasant and explicitly undesirable. Nobody runs after this form of suffering, and we need no sophisticated explanations to understand it. Nor do we need to devise skillful stratagems to avoid it—animals, insects, and humans are all constantly involved with doing so already, even though none of our attempts seems very skillful. We all wish to be free from this gross suffering.

Viparinama-dukkha (the dukkha of the changing nature of all things)

Translations

The Pali term viparinama-dukkha (Sanskrit: vipariṇāma-duhkhatta) is translated as:

• Dukkha as produced by change (Rahula)^[15]
• Dukkha due to change (Bhikkhu Bodhi)^{[web 8]}
• The dukkha of the changing nature of all things (Goldstein)^[26]
• The suffering of change (Trungpa; Sakyong Mipham; Ringu Tulku; Traleg Kyabgon; Dalai Lama; Geshe Tashi Tsering)^{[17][18][19][20][21][22]}
• Suffering as change (Gethin)^[16]
• The stressfulness of change (Thanisarro Bhikkhu)^{[web 9]}
• Difficulties or dukkha caused by changing circumstances (Lama Surya Das)^[24]
• The suffering of impermanence
• The suffering of trying to hold on to things that are always changing. (Pema Chodron)

Description

This level of dukkha includes:

• The anxiety or stress of trying to hold on to what is desirable.
• The frustration of not getting what you want.

The Tibetan teacher Chogyam Trungpa expands this category to include "not knowing what you want."^[28]

Joseph Goldstein states:^[29]

The second way we experience dukkha, the unsatisfying, unreliable nature of things, is through the direct and increasingly refined perception of their changing nature. [It is said that] many people have become enlightened by hearing just this one short teaching: “whatever has the nature to arise will also pass away.” But because this statement is so glaringly obvious, we often ignore or overlook its deep implications. Although we may not always feel this flow of incessant change as suffering, we still come to realize that nothing can be counted on to bring lasting fulfillment, precisely because nothing lasts. This great truth of change inevitably leads us to times of association with what we don’t want and separation from what we do. And these situations, in turn, often condition resistance to the unpleasant things that come and clinging to the pleasant ones.

Geshe Tashi Tsering states:^[30]

Because this level of suffering is much more subtle and not apparent without some analysis, it is more difficult to recognize. Without investigation, objects at this level actually appear to be causes of happiness, because they bring some temporary pleasure. However, if we have mindfulness, we can see them for what they are. Initially, things and events (such as relationships, possessions, and so forth) appear desirable—they look as if they will bring happiness. That’s why we become attracted to them. However, when time passes and circumstances change, the same desirable, handsome, beautiful object turns into something ugly or undesirable—something we want to avoid.

Relation to impermanence

This level of dukkha is directly related to the Buddhist concept of impermanence. For example, Geshe Tashi Tsering states that in order to understand this level of dukkha:^[31]

[...] we need an understanding of the gross level of impermanence—how things come into being, remain, and then cease by the power of things other than themselves. Things arise by the power of others, and while they remain they are still under the power of others. Their cessation also depends on the power of others. Nothing happens independently. Understanding this gross level of impermanence and the fact that we actually have so little freedom will help us understand the more subtle levels of impermanence.

Joseph Goldstein emphasizes the importance of reflecting on impermanence:^[32]

On the conceptual level we understand [the changing nature of things] quite easily, but in our lives, how often are we living in anticipation of what comes next, as if that will finally bring us to some sort of completion or fulfillment? When we look back over our lives, what has happened to all those things we were looking forward to? Where are they now? This doesn’t mean that we should never enjoy ourselves or enjoy different pleasant experiences. It just means we need to realize and remember the very transitory nature of that happiness and to deeply consider what our highest aspirations really are.

Some powerful reflections and reminders in this regard are that all times of being together will end in separation, that all accumulation will end in dispersion, and that all life will end in death. And at the moment of death, what really belongs to us? Surprisingly, reflecting in this way on the truth of dukkha, which simply sees how things are free of hope and fear, brings a great lightness of heart and mind. It’s a great relief to be out of the grip of deluded enchantment. There’s a freshness and vivid clarity in seeing things as they are.

Goldstein presents five reflections that are practiced on a daily basis within many Buddhist traditions:^{[32][lower-alpha 6]}

Bhikkhus, there are these five themes that should often be reflected upon by a woman or a man, by a householder or one gone forth. What five? (1) . . . ‘I am subject to old age; I am not exempt from old age.’ (2) . . . ‘I am subject to illness; I am not exempt from illness.’ (3) . . . ‘I am subject to death; I am not exempt from death.’ (4) . . . ‘I must be parted from everyone and everything dear and agreeable to me.’ (5) ‘I am the owner of my kamma, the heir of my kamma; I have kamma as my origin, kamma as my relative, kamma as my resort; I will be the heir of whatever kamma, good or bad, that I do.’”

Sankhara-dukkha (the dukkha of conditioned experience)

Translations

The Pali term sankhara-dukkha (Sanskrit: samskara-duhkhatta) is referred to as:

• Dukkha as conditioned states (Rahula)^[15]
• The dukkha of conditioned formations (Bhikkhu Bhodi)^{[web 8]}
• The dukkha of conditioned experience (Goldstein)^[33]
• All-pervasive suffering (Trungpa; Sakyong Mipham; Ringu Tulku)^[17][18][19]
• Pervasive suffering (Geshe Tashi Tsering)^[22]
• Suffering of conditioning (Dalai Lama)^[21]
• Suffering as conditions (Gethin)^[16]
• The stressfulness of fabrication (Thanisarro Bhikkhu)^{[web 9]}
• Difficulties or dukkha caused by the flawed nature of conditioned existence (Lama Surya Das)^[24]
• The suffering of ego-clinging (Pema Chodron)

Traleg Kyabgon referred to the third type of suffering as samsara-duhkhatta (Sanskrit), which he translates as "the suffering of conditioned existence."^[20]

Description

This is the deepest, most subtle level of dukkha; it includes "a basic unsatisfactoriness pervading all existence, all forms of life, because all forms of life are changing, impermanent and without any inner core or substance."^{[web 12]} On this level, the term indicates a lack of satisfaction, a sense that things never measure up to our expectations or standards.

This subtle form of suffering arises as a reaction to qualities of conditioned things, including the skandhas, the factors constituting the human mind.

Pema Chodron describes this as the suffering of ego-clinging; the suffering of struggling with life as it is, as it presents itself to you; struggling against outer situations and yourself, your own emotions and thoughts, rather than just opening and allowing.

Phillip Moffitt states:^[34]

Every day, even during the pleasant moments, do you not experience an underlying unease about the future? This worry and anxiety is a manifestation of the third type of suffering the Buddha identified – life's inherent unsatisfactoriness due to its insubstantial compositional nature. Each moment arises due to certain conditions, then it just disappears. There is not a lasting or substantial "there there" in daily life, thus it is often described as being like a dream.

Phillip Moffit relates this level of dukkha with existential angst:^[35]

How often in your adult life have you experienced the queasiness and unease that come from a sense of meaninglessness in your life? Think of all those occasions when you felt as though you were wasting your life, or sleepwalking through it, or not living from your deepest, most heartfelt sense of your self. Remember the times when you've felt as though there is little you do each day that has any real, lasting significance. We've all fallen prey at some point in our lives to such dark times of self-doubt and existential angst.

Geshe Tashi Tsering states:^[36]

This level of suffering, and the causes and conditions that bring it about, can be understood through the teachings on the subtle levels of impermanence. Pervasive suffering is present wherever we are born in cyclic existence; we cannot avoid it. And yet, because its causes and conditions are very deeply rooted, it is very difficult for us, as ordinary people, to even recognize it and acknowledge at all. However, only when we acknowledge it we can begin to abandon it. The effects of pervasive suffering spread throughout our lives and often manifest in the form of grosser sufferings, which makes it difficult for us to really come to grips with it. It is so enmeshed that even understanding it, let alone overcoming it, takes a lot of effort.

Geshe Tashi Tsering asserts that we will not be free of this level of dukkha "until we are free from samsara, until we are buddhas."^[37]

This category (sankhara-dukkha) is also identified as one of the "eight types of suffering".

Types

Eight types

Dukkha can also be categorized into eight types belonging to the three categories of inherited suffering, the suffering between the period of birth and death, and general misery. Chogyam Trunga explains these categories as follows:^{[38][lower-alpha 7]}

Inherited suffering:

• Birth (jāti): the discomfort of birth and experiencing the world for the first time; and the discomfort of relating to new demands or experiences.
• Old age (jarā): the discomfort involved in the process of aging and growing old; this can apply to psychological as well as physical discomfort of aging.
• Sickness (byādhi): the discomfort of physical or psychological illness.
• Death (maraṇa): includes the pain of separation and not being able to continue on in your endeavors, as well as the physical discomfort of dying.

Suffering between the periods of birth and death:

• Getting what you don't want: being unable to avoid difficult or painful situations.
• Not being able to hold onto what is desirable: the pain of trying to hold onto what is desirable, lovely, splendid, terrific.
• Not getting what you do want: this underlies the previous two categories; the anxiety of not getting what you want.

General misery:

• All-pervasive suffering: a very subtle dissatisfaction that exists all the time; it arises as a reaction to the qualities of conditioned things (e.g. the impermanence of things).

Six types

Aung San Suu Kyi presented a list of six great dukkha at her Nobel Lecture, delivered on 16 June 2012. These are:^{[web 14]}

• To be conceived (jāti)
• To age (jarā)
• To sicken (byādhi)
• To die (maraṇa)
• To be parted from those one loves
• To be forced to live in propinquity with those one does not love

Developing insight into dukkha

Four Noble Truths

The Buddhist tradition emphasizes the importance of developing insight into the nature of dukkha, the conditions that cause it, and how it can be overcome. This process is formulated in the teachings on the Four Noble Truths.

Meditation

Meditation (Pali: jhana) is considered to be an essential tool for developing insight into the nature of dukkha. Contemporary Buddhist teacher Ajahn Brahm emphasizes that without the experience of meditation, one's knowledge of the world is too limited to fully understand dukkha.^[39] In the following simile, Ajahn Brahm compares the experience of dukkha to being in prison, and compares meditation (Pali: jhana) to a tunnel that leads out of the prison:^{[lower-alpha 8]}

Another simile [...] is that of the man who was born and raised in a prison and who has never set foot outside. All he knows is prison life. He would have no conception of the freedom that is beyond his world. And he would not understand that prison is suffering. If anybody suggested that his world was dukkha, he would disagree, for prison is the limit of his experience. But one day he might find the escape tunnel dug long ago that leads beyond the prison walls to the unimaginable and expansive world of real freedom. Only when he has entered that tunnel and escaped from his prison does he realize how much suffering prison actually was, and the end of that suffering, escaping from jail is happiness.

In this simile the prison is the body, the high prison walls are the five senses, and the relentless demanding prison guard is one's own will, the doer. The tunnel dug long ago, through which one escapes, is called jhana [meditation] (as at AN IX, 42). Only when one has experienced jhana does one realize that the five-sense world, even at its best, is really a five-walled prison, some parts of it is a little more comfortable but still a jail with everyone on death row! Only after deep jhana does one realize that "will" was the torturer, masquerading as freedom, but preventing one ever resting happily at peace. Only outside of prison can one gain the data that produces the deep insight that discovers the truth about dukkha.

In summary, without experience of jhana, one's knowledge of the world is too limited to fully understand dukkha, as required by the first noble truth, and proceed to enlightenment.^[39]

Contemporary scholar Michael Carrithers emphasizes the need to examine one's life. Carrithers asserts that insofar as it is dynamic, ever-changing, uncontrollable and not finally satisfactory, unexamined life is itself precisely dukkha.^[40] Carrithers also asserts that the question which underlay the Buddha's quest was "in what may I place lasting relevance?" He did not deny that there are satisfactions in experience: the exercise of vipassana assumes that the meditator sees instances of happiness clearly. Pain is to be seen as pain, and pleasure as pleasure. It is denied that happiness dependent on conditions will be secure and lasting.^[40]

Contemporary teacher Chogyam Trungpa presents a perspective on how meditation practice can help the practitioner relate with dukkha; he states:

Understanding suffering [dukkha] is very important. The practice of meditation is designed not to develop pleasure, but to understand the truth of suffering; and in order to understand the truth of suffering, one also has to understand the truth of awareness. When true awareness takes place, suffering does not exist. Through awareness, suffering is somewhat changed in its perspective. It is not necessarily that you do not suffer, but the haunting quality that fundamentally you are in trouble is removed. It is like removing a splinter. It might hurt, and you might still feel pain, but the basic cause of that pain, the ego, has been removed.^[41]

Compassion

Developing insight into dukkha is said to lead to greater compassion for other beings. For example, Joseph Goldstein states:^[42]

[Developing insight into dukkha] is the gateway not only to awakening, but also to the arising and nourishing of compassion. Compassion is that feeling in the heart that wants to help others and ourselves be free of suffering. It’s the feeling described by the Japanese Zen master and poet Ryokan:

O that my monk’s robes

were wide enough

to gather up all the people

in this floating world.

The first noble truth leads us to the practice of compassion, because it is the practice of letting things in, letting people in, letting all parts of ourselves in.

Within the discourses

The Buddha taught on dukkha repeatedly throughout his lifetime. In the Alagadduupama sutta, the Buddha states:^{[lower-alpha 2]}

"I have taught one thing, and one thing only, dukkha and the cessation of dukkha."

In the Anuradha Sutta, the Buddha states:^{[web 15]}

"Both formerly & now, it is only dukkha that I describe, and the cessation of dukkha."

The classic formulation of these teachings on dukkha is the doctrine of the Four Noble Truths, in which the Truth of Dukkha (Pali: dukkha saccã; Sanskrit: duḥkha-satya) is identified as the first of the four truths. The Four Noble Truths are presented within the Buddha's first discourse, Setting in Motion the Wheel of the Dharma (Dharmacakra Pravartana Sūtra); in this discourse, the Buddha defines dukkha as follows:^{[web 16]}

"This is the noble truth of dukkha: birth is dukkha, aging is dukkha, illness is dukkha, death is dukkha; sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief and despair are dukkha; union with what is displeasing is dukkha; separation from what is pleasing is dukkha; not to get what one wants is dukkha; in brief, the five aggregates subject to clinging are dukkha."^[43]

In the Cula-Malunkyovada Sutta, the Buddha states:^{[web 17]}

"And what is declared by me? 'This is dukkha,' is declared by me. 'This is the origination of dukkha,' is declared by me. 'This is the cessation of dukkha,' is declared by me. 'This is the path of practice leading to the cessation of dukkha,' is declared by me. And why are they declared by me? Because they are connected with the goal, are fundamental to the holy life. They lead to disenchantment, dispassion, cessation, calming, direct knowledge, self-awakening, Unbinding. That's why they are declared by me.

In the sutra Samyutta Nikaya #35, the Buddha says:

What ordinary folk call happiness, the enlightened ones call dukkha.

The Anapanasati Sutta and Mahāsatipaṭṭhāna Sutta emphasize the importance of the practice of meditation (jnana) to purify the mind of the five hindrances before contemplating the nature dukkha in the context of the Four Noble Truths.

Relation to the five skandhas

According to the Buddhist tradition, the dukkha of conditioned states (saṃkhāra-dukkha) is related to clinging to the skandhas. Oxford scholar Noa Ronkin presents her understanding of the relation between the skandhas (Sanskrit; Pali: khandhas) and dukkha as follows:

[Contemporary scholar] Sue Hamilton has provided a detailed study of the khandhas. Her conclusion is that the associating of the five skandhas as a whole with dukkha indicates that experience is a combination of a straightforward cognitive process together with the psychological orientation that colours it in terms of unsatisfactoriness. Experience is thus both cognitive and affective, and cannot be separated from perception. As one's perception changes, so one's experience is different: we each have our own particular cognitions, perceptions and volitional activities in our own particular way and degree, and our own way of responding to and interpreting our experience is our very experience. In harmony with this line of thought, Gethin observes that the skandhas are presented as five aspects of the nature of conditioned existence from the point of view of the experiencing subject; five aspects of one's experience. Hence each khandha represents 'a complex class of phenomena that is continuously arising and falling away in response to processes of consciousness based on the six spheres of sense. They thus become the five upādānakhandhas, encompassing both grasping and all that is grasped.'^[44]

Three marks of existence

Dukkha is also listed among the three marks of existence. These are:

• Impermanence (anicca)
• Suffering (dukkha)
• Not-self (anatta).

In this context, dukkha denotes the experience that all formations (sankhara) are impermanent (anicca) - thus it explains the qualities which make the mind as fluctuating and impermanent entities. It is therefore also a gateway to anatta, not-self.

Translating the term dukkha

Contemporary translators of Buddhist texts use a variety of English words to convey the aspects of dukkha.

Early Western translators of Buddhist texts (before the 1970s) typically translated the Pali term dukkha as "suffering", a translation that tended to convey the impression that Buddhism was a pessimistic or world-denying philosophy.^{[lower-alpha 3]} Later translators, however, including Walpola Rahula (What Buddha Taught, 1974) and nearly all contemporary translators, have emphasized that "suffering" is too limited a translation for the term dukkha, and have preferred to either leave the term untranslated or to clarify that translation with terms such as anxiety, stress, frustration, unease, unsatisfactoriness, etc.^{[45][46][47][web 19][lower-alpha 9]}

For example, Piyadassi Thera states:^{[web 4]}

The word dukkha (or Sanskrit duhkha) is one of those Pali terms that cannot be translated adequately into English, by one word, for no English word covers the same ground as dukkha in Pali. Suffering, ill, anguish, unsatisfactoriness are some favourite renderings; the words pain, misery, sorrow, conflict, and so forth, are also used. The word dukkha, however, includes all that, and more than that.

Contemporary scholar Rupert Gethin states:^[16]

Rich in meaning and nuance, the word duḥkha is one of the basic terms of Buddhist and other Indian religious discourse. Literally 'pain' or 'anguish', in its religious and philosophical contexts duḥkha is, however, suggestive of an underlying sense of 'unsatisfactoriness' or 'unease' that must ultimately mar even our experience of happiness.

Contemporary translator Bhikkhu Bodhi states:^[50]

The Pāli word [dukkha] is often translated as suffering, but it means something deeper than pain and misery. It refers to a basic unsatisfactoriness running through our lives, the lives of all but the enlightened. Sometimes this unsatisfactoriness erupts into the open as sorrow, grief, disappointment, or despair; but usually it hovers at the edge of our awareness as a vague unlocalized sense that things are never quite perfect, never fully adequate to our expectations of what they should be.

Many contemporary teachers, scholars, and translators have used the term "unsatisfactoriness" to emphasize the subtlest aspects of dukkha.^{[lower-alpha 10]} For example, contemporary scholar Damien Keown states that in the context of the subtle aspects of dukkha:^[54]

[...] the word dukkha has a more abstract and pervasive sense: it suggests that even when life is not painful it can be unsatisfactory and unfulfilling. In this and many other contexts ‘unsatisfactoriness’ captures the meaning of dukkha better than ‘suffering’.

The writer Mark Epstein states:^[55] 'A more specific translation [of the term dukkha] would be something on the order of “pervasive unsatisfactoriness.” '

In the glossary for his text Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Awakening, Joseph Goldstein provides the following definition for dukkha: "Suffering, unsatisfactoriness, stress".^[57]

Many translators prefer to leave the term untranslated.^{[lower-alpha 9]} For example, scholar and translator Walpola Rahula states:^[58]

It is true that the Pali word dukkha (or Sanskrit duḥkha) in ordinary usage means ‘suffering’, ‘pain’, ‘sorrow’ or ‘misery’, as opposed to the word sukha meaning ‘happiness’, ‘comfort’ or ‘ease’. But the term dukkha as the First Noble Truth, which represents the Buddha’s view of life and the world, has a deeper philosophical meaning and connotes enormously wider senses. It is admitted that the term dukkha in the First Noble Truth contains, quite obviously, the ordinary meaning of ‘suffering’, but in addition it also includes deeper ideas such as ‘imperfection’, ‘impermanence’, ‘emptiness’, ‘insubstantiality’. It is difficult therefore to find one word to embrace the whole conception of the term dukkha as the First Noble Truth, and so it is better to leave it untranslated, than to give an inadequate and wrong idea of it by conveniently translating it as ‘suffering’ or ‘pain’.

Alternate translations

Contemporary translators have used a variety of English words to translate the term dukkha; translators commonly use different words to translate aspects of the term. For example, dukkha has been translated as follows in many contexts:

• Anguish
• Anxiety (Chogyam Trungpa, The Truth of Suffering, pp. 8–10)
• Affliction (Brazier)
• Dissatisfaction (Pema Chodron, Chogyam Trunpa)
• Discomfort
• Discontent
• Frustration (Dalai Lama, Four Noble Truths, p. 38)
• Misery
• Sorrow
• Stress (Thanissaro Bhikkhu, Jon Kabat-Zin)
• Suffering (Thich Nhat Hanh, Ajahn Succito, Chogyam Trungpa, Rupert Gethin, Dalai Lama, et al.)
• Uneasiness (Chogyam Trungpa)
• Unease (Rupert Gethin)
• Unhappiness
• Unsatisfactoriness (Dalai Lama, Bhikkhu Bodhi, Rupert Gethin, et al.)^{[lower-alpha 10]}

Translations into other languages

In Chinese Buddhism, dukkha is translated as kǔ (苦 "bitterness; hardship; suffering; pain"), and this loanword is pronounced ku (苦) in Japanese Buddhism and ko (苦) in Korean Buddhism and khổ in Vietnamese Buddhism. The Tibetan (phonetic) is dukngal. In Shan, it is [tuk˥kʰaː˥] and in Burmese, it is [doʊʔkʰa̰].

Etymology

In ordinary usage, the Pali word dukkha (Sanskrit duḥkha) means ‘suffering’, ‘pain’, ‘sorrow’ or ‘misery’, as opposed to the word sukha meaning ‘happiness’, ‘comfort’ or ‘ease’.^[58] Contemporary scholar Winthrop Sargeant explains the etymological roots of these terms as follows:^[59]

The ancient Aryans who brought the Sanskrit language to India were a nomadic, horse- and cattle-breeding people who travelled in horse- or ox-drawn vehicles. Su and dus are prefixes indicating good or bad. The word kha, in later Sanskrit meaning "sky," "ether," or "space," was originally the word for "hole," particularly an axle hole of one of the Aryan's vehicles. Thus sukha … meant, originally, "having a good axle hole," while duhkha meant "having a poor axle hole," leading to discomfort.

Joseph Goldstein explains the etymology as follows:^[60]

The word [dukkha] is made up of the prefix du and the root kha. Du means “bad” or “difficult.” Kha means “empty.” “Empty,” here, refers to several things—some specific, others more general. One of the specific meanings refers to the empty axle hole of a wheel. If the axle fits badly into the center hole, we get a very bumpy ride. This is a good analogy for our ride through saṃsāra. On my first trip to Burma, a group of friends and I went up-country to visit Mahāsi Sayadaw’s home temple. We made part of the journey in an oxcart, and it was undoubtedly similar to modes of transportation in the Buddha’s time. This extremely bumpy journey was a very visceral example of dukkha, the first noble truth. In more general philosophical terms, “empty” means devoid of permanence and devoid of a self that can control or command phenomena. Here we begin to get a sense of other, more inclusive meanings of the term dukkha. Words like unsatisfying, unreliable, uneaseful, and stressful all convey universal aspects of our experience.

Nineteenth century translator Monier-Williams states that according to grammatical tradition, dukkha is derived from dus-kha "uneasy"; but Monier-Williams asserts that the term is more likely a Prakritized form of dus-stha "unsteady, disquieted".^[61]

Within non-Buddhist literature

Hinduism

In Hindu literature, the earliest Upaniṣads — the Bṛhadāraṇyaka and the Chāndogya — are believed to predate or coincide with the advent of Buddhism.^{[lower-alpha 11]} In these texts' verses, the Sanskrit word duḥkha (translated below as "suffering" and "distress") occurs only twice. In the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad, it states (in English and Sanskrit):

English	Sanskrit
While we are still here, we have come to know it [ātman]. If you've not known it, great is your destruction. Those who have known it — they become immortal. As for the rest — only suffering awaits them.[62]	ihaiva santo 'tha vidmas tad vayaṃ na ced avedir mahatī vinaṣṭiḥ ye tad vidur amṛtās te bhavanty athetare duḥkham evāpiyanti[web 20]

In the Chāndogya Upaniṣad, it is written:

English	Sanskrit
When a man rightly sees, he sees no death, no sickness or distress. When a man rightly sees, he sees all, he wins all, completely.[63][lower-alpha 12]	na paśyo mṛtyuṃ paśyati na rogaṃ nota duḥkhatām sarvaṃ ha paśyaḥ paśyati sarvam āpnoti sarvaśaḥ[web 21]

Thus, as in Buddhism, these texts emphasize that one overcomes duḥkha through the development of a transcendent understanding.^{[lower-alpha 13]}

Panetics

In 1986, the Journal of Humanistic Psychology published an article by Ralph G.H. Siu entitled Panetics—The Study of the Infliction of Suffering.^[64] In the abstract for the article, Sui proposed using the term dukkha as a quantitative measurement; he wrote:

After analyzing the unceasing mutual inflictions of suffering by practically everyone and the neglect of this pervasive and degenerating human deficiency by the academic community, I urge the immediate creation of a new and vigorous academic discipline, called panetics, to be devoted to the study of the infliction of suffering. The nature, scope, illustrative contents, and social value are outlined. The dukkha is proposed as a semiquantitative unit of suffering to assist in associated analytical operations.

Related publications include:

• Panetics: The study of the infliction of suffering. J. Humanistic Psychology 28(3), 6-22. 1988
• The humane chief of state and the Gross National Dukkhas (GND). Panetics 2(2), 1-5. 1993.
• Panetics Trilogy. The International Society for Panetics, 1994.
  • Vol. I, Less Suffering for Everybody. Ibid.
  • Vol. II, Panetics and Dukkhas. Ibid.
  • Vol. III, Seeds of Reflection, Panetic Word Clusters. Ibid

See also

• Four Noble Truths
• Nirodha
• Noble Eightfold Path
• Samudaya
• Suffering
• Taṇhā

Notes

References

Web references

Sources

Further reading

• Rhys Davids, T.W. Stede, William (1921-1925). The Pali Text Society's Pali-English dictionary. Chipstead, London: Pali Text Society, pp. 324-325

External links

Online commentaries:

• What Buddha Taught (free online version)

Other sources:

• The Journey Starts Here, Shambhala Sun
• Dukkha, edited by John T. Bullitt - Access to Insight
• The Buddha's Concept of Dukkha, Kingsley Heendeniya
• Ku 苦 entry (use "guest" with no password for one-time login), Digital Dictionary of Buddhism

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