User:Dorje108/Dukkha quotes

Unsatisfactoriness

The Dalai Lama states:

So the first step we must take as practicing Buddhists is to recognize our present state as duhkha, or suffering, frustration and unsatisfactoriness.

Rupert Gethin explains:

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.

Oxford scholar Noa Ronkin presents her understanding of the relation between the skandhas (Sanskrit; Pali: khandhas) and dukkha:

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.

Piyadassi Thera states:

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.

Piyadassi Thera also states:

It should now be clear that the Four Noble Truths are the central concept of Buddhism. What the Buddha taught during his ministry of forty-five years embraces these Truths, namely: Dukkha, suffering or unsatisfactoriness, its arising, its cessation and the way out of this unsatisfactory state.

Ajahn Sucitto states:

dukkha, which means “suffering,” “trouble,” and “general unsatisfactoriness.”

Sucitto, Ajahn (2010-09-14). Turning the Wheel of Truth: Commentary on the Buddha's First Teaching (p. 3). Shambhala Publications. Kindle Edition.

Smith and Huston:

The three insights described in this paragraph are insights into the three marks of existence—impermanence (anicca), lack of self-existence (anatta), and unsatisfactoriness (dukkha)—which

Smith, Huston; Novak, Philip (2009-03-17). Buddhism: A Concise Introduction . HarperOne. Kindle Edition.

Phillip Moffitt:

Furthermore, 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 Moffitt. Dancing with Life: Buddhist Insights for Finding Meaning and Joy in the Face of Suffering (Kindle Locations 530-533). Kindle Edition.

Moffit continues:

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.

Phillip Moffitt. Dancing with Life: Buddhist Insights for Finding Meaning and Joy in the Face of Suffering (Kindle Locations 533-536). Kindle Edition.

Damien Keown:

In this context 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’.

Keown, Damien (2000-02-24). Buddhism: A Very Short Introduction (Kindle Locations 932-934). Oxford University Press. Kindle Edition.

Keown again:

Everything which comes into being is said to bear three characteristics or ‘marks’ namely unsatisfactoriness (dukkha), impermanence (anicca), and the absence of self-essence (anattā).

Keown, Damien (2000-02-24). Buddhism: A Very Short Introduction (Kindle Locations 1002-1003). Oxford University Press. Kindle Edition.

Epstein states:

A more specific translation would be something on the order of “pervasive unsatisfactoriness.” The Buddha is speaking on a number of levels here. Life, he says, is filled with a sense of pervasive unsatisfactoriness, stemming from at least three sources.

Epstein, Mark (2004-12-14). Thoughts Without A Thinker: Psychotherapy from a Buddhist Perspective (p. 46). Basic Books. Kindle Edition.

Epstein continues:

As many a psychotherapist can testify, and as the Buddha so clearly recognized, our own selves can feel somehow unsatisfactory to us. We are all touched by a gnawing sense of imperfection, insubstantiality, uncertainty, or unrest, and we all long for a magical resolution of that disease. From the very beginning, the human infant is vulnerable to an unfathomable anxiety that survives in the adult as a sense of futility or as a feeling of unreality.

Epstein, Mark (2004-12-14). Thoughts Without A Thinker: Psychotherapy from a Buddhist Perspective (p. 46). Basic Books. Kindle Edition.

Walpola Rahula states:

The First Noble Truth is Dukkha, the nature of life, its suffering, its sorrows and joys, its imperfection and unsatisfactoriness, its impermanence and insubstantiality.

Rahula, Walpola; Demieville, Paul (2007-12-01). What the Buddha Taught: Revised and Expanded Edition with Texts from Suttas and Dhammapada (Kindle Locations 1242-1243). Grove Press. Kindle Edition.

Bhikkhu Bodhi states:

He starts the Four Noble Truths that sum up his message with the announcement that life is inseparably tied to something he calls dukkha. The Pāli word 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. This fact of dukkha, the Buddha says, is the only real spiritual problem.

Bodhi, Bhikkhu (2011-12-15). The Noble Eightfold Path: Way to the End of Suffering (p. 6). Independent Publishers Group. Kindle Edition.

Bhikkhu states:

The first noble truth is the truth of suffering (dukkha), the inherent unsatisfactoriness of existence, revealed in the impermanence, pain, and perpetual incompleteness intrinsic to all forms of life. - Bodhi, Bhikkhu (2011-12-15). The Noble Eightfold Path: Way to the End of Suffering (p. 24). Independent Publishers Group. Kindle Edition.

FNT

The four noble truths are commonly translated into English as follows: the truth of suffering, its cause, its end, and the path to that end. Some translators, such as Walpola Rahula, have stated that the use of the word suffering can cause confusion; they prefer to use the Pali term dukkha. In this case, the four noble truths are:

1. Dukkha2
2. Samudaya, the arising or origin of dukkha,
3. Nirodha, the cessation of dukkha,
4. Magga, the way leading to the cessation of dukkha.

Rahula, Walpola; Demieville, Paul (2007-12-01). What the Buddha Taught: Revised and Expanded Edition with Texts from Suttas and Dhammapada (Kindle Locations 520-524). Grove Press. Kindle Edition.

Thicht Nat Hahn: http://samsaricwarrior.com/2009/11/