Life is Suffering?

7 Dec 2001

Jay, I found this email on the 4 noble truths and a perhaps common misconception of the 1st truth.

Rephrased in light of a possible deeper understanding of the word "dukkha" we may see that instead of the 1st noble truth being "Life is suffering", we more accurately have the truth that "Life is the experience of the pairs of opposites."

RL

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It is hard to understand the ideas of Buddhism, in translation, and from 2,500 years away. The word which is often transliterated as "dukkha"  is often translated as "suffering" and that hardly does it justice.

Here is a quote I just found on the Web. I don't entirely agree with it, but it does give something of the flavor of how much harder you have to look to understand Dukkha:

"Dukkha is disturbance, irritation, dejection, worry, despair, fear, dread, anguish, anxiety; vulnerability, injury, inability, inferiority; sickness, aging, decay of body and faculties, senility; pain/pleasure; excitement/boredom; deprivation/excess; desire/frustration, suppression; longing/aimlessness; hope/hopelessness; effort, activity, striving/repression; loss, want, insufficiency/satiety; love/lovelessness, friendlessness; dislike, aversion/attraction; parenthood/childlessness; submission/rebellion; decision/indecisiveness, vacillation, uncertainty." -- Francis Story

Bruce