“Life is Suffering”

You may of heard this line attributed to the Buddha, but did you know he never said such a thing? This is often how the first of the four noble truths of the Buddha(the core teaching) is translated into English and people’s common response is “ uh no, thats not true there is a lot of happiness in life!”, rightly so.

What are the four noble truths? they ARE the teaching, the path, and the practice, and everything taught by the Buddha fits nicely within them as all the footprints of land animals fit in the Elephant’s footprint.

The First is the truth of Dukkha, often translated as “suffering”, which is an archaic and horrid translation. It is hard to find one single word to encapsulate Dukkha, but taken from it’s grammatical roots it can mean “that which is difficult to bear”. Which is my preferred definition and what I feel makes the most sense based on my experience.This is the first truth, that there is Dukkha.

And so the Buddha explains what Dukkha is, What is Difficult to Bear? Birth, old age, sickness, death, sorrow, grief and despair, separation from all that we hold dear, having to be in contact with that which we do not like, and not getting what one wants, This is all difficult to bear.

Is eating an ice cream cone, being in love, watching an exciting movie or any other fun and exciting experience “difficult to bear”? no, of course not, that is until we cling to these experiences and then when they change, when the ice cream cone is finished, when you get divorced , when the movie is over, THAT is Dukkha, difficult to bear, because we have developed attachments that make it hard to let go when the situations we enjoy change.

We want another ice cream cone, we want to find another lover, we can’t wait for the sequel to that movie. Instead of being content with the experience as it came and went, we cling to the experience and that is how we create Dukkha. Dukkha is not some eternal force in the universe, it is something we create in each of us, we create our own suffering, and likewise we can end our own suffering.

Now of course if you believe there is just one life, then what does it matter? you can be like medieval Christians and just say “ well it’s pretty hellish down here , but we just have to get through this life and then we can be eternally happy or on the other extreme, maybe just not exist at all”. The Buddha never had any comforting words of eternal bliss in this regard, he just showed us that we are stuck in a cycle of craving and clinging that sees us coming to existence over and over again, being born, growing old, sick, losing loved ones, dieing, from an unknown beginning into an unknown eternity. That is enough to make anyone disenchanted with sensual experience and seek release, as the Buddha did himself when he found the path and proclaimed it for us.

The Buddha talked about how those who practice the path should know the gratification, the danger, and the escape, to sensual experience. He said that of course there is gratification, if experiences we have through our 6 senses were not gratifying, we would not be mired in samsara and blindly follow our cravings and desires into our own ruin. The Danger here is as always that whatever we chase after will change, will become otherwise, and this will cause us to suffer because of our wrong view of reality as it is. If we accepted that things will change, when they inevitably do, we will not suffer because the change will not be difficult to bear.

The Buddha is called the consummate Physician, and the four noble truths are how a doctor might look at a disease. the first is to acknowledge the problem, that is the truth of Dukkha, the next is to try and find a cause, and the Buddha found that cause in our craving, craving for more experiences through our six senses, clinging to those ice cream cones, lovers, and movies. This is indeed what causes us to continue in Samsara, being reborn over and over, because we just can’t let go and we WANT to come back.

The last two noble truths show us that there is an end to this cycle, that is Nibbana/Nirvana/enlightenment. And the final truth is how to get there, that is the Noble Eightfold Path. This is the path to tread for those who wish to break the cycle and become free, to find true solid peace and happiness not dependant on external conditions.

So is life suffering? I suppose that depends on how much you cling. You as always have the choice to create further Dukkha, or lasting peace.