by Wayne Ren-Cheng

Siddhartha experienced suffering for the first time when Chana, his charioteer rode him through the streets of Kapilavatthu. He saw the sick, the aged, and the dead; views of the world outside his home that had been hidden from him since his birth. This experience was the catalyst for his journey both into his own bodymind, and out into the world of human beings. Six years later he sat under neath a bodhi-tree with a bodymind determined to fully understand the human condition. He awakened to four truths, the first being the reality that all human beings suffer in some moments in their lives. The Awakened One offered that suffering (P., dukkha) arises in three ways. A fourth view of dukkha is revealed with a deep view of contemporary living. There are physical phenomena that arise as the result from injury or disease, psycho-emotional phenomena that arise from unrealistic views, and conscious phenomena that arise as a result of a fundamental misunderstanding of the causal Universe. There is also suffering that arises from social and economic factors. The Four Ennobling Truths offer the realities of suffering and the Eightfold Path as the way to alleviate suffering; it is up to each of us to learn to recognize the unique situations that bring about the arising of suffering and the skillful methods needed to alleviate it.

Pain is dukkha. This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who has injured themselves. Pain is a type of suffering whether it arises when a child falls from a tree or the arthritis that debilitates the aged. Suffering caused by physical pain is dukkha-dukkha.

Some people enjoy growing roses. They invest time, effort and skill in order to reap the reward of beauty. Invariably during planting or pruning, even when harvesting beautiful flowers to put in a vase in the house they’ll get pricked by thorns or nick their finger with pruning shears. This is suffering caused by physical pain (dukkha-dukkha).

Craving for permanence or achievement is Viparinama-dukkha. All phenomena whether mental or physical will undergo change; that is the reality of impermanence. Attachment to, or craving for permanence is a path to suffering. Viparinama-dukkha also arises when a phenomena is craved for and never achieved.

There is enjoyment in the process of nurturing bare roots and canes through the first warm days of spring. Time and energy is invested in planting, fertilizing, pruning, taking care of plants through disease and infestation to finally seeing blossoms unfurl and smelling their perfumes. It is a labor of love and caring. All is done in anticipation of fragrant blossoms in vibrant colors. Some rose bushes die from known and unknown factors, some rose bushes don’t bloom every season, and pests can infest the rose bushes. This can cause psycho-emotional suffering that arises from attachment (vapriana-dukkha) and craving.

The type of suffering most difficult to recognize, and to alleviate arises as reactions to the delusions that can so easily become habits and dispositions is sankhara-dukkha. This suffering occurs frequently in reaction to the skandhas (aggregates) that can be wrongly perceived as “self” – form, sensations, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness. Sankhara-dukkha also arises due to pleasurable constructs that cause psycho-emotional pain even while they are being experienced; habits and dispositions that one continually acts on even as they are knowingly causing suffering. This type of dukkha is described as being as difficult to perceive as an eyelash laying in your palm, but it is a painful as that same eyelash stuck in your eye.

Some people grow roses because it helps them create an image of themselves. The thought of the work needed bothers them, the actions of kneeling in the soil and dealing with bugs and black mold sickens them, but they pursue the delusion of being a gardener of roses. The pleasure they find is in being able to say “I raise roses”, in becoming part of a tribe that values such activity. All during the process the subtle suffering is denied through the strength of the delusion (sankhara-dukkha).

The Four Ennobling Truths identify the source, the symptoms, the cure and the treatment for suffering. Starting with the practice of meditation the path to the alleviation of suffering is through the bodymind. Change the way one thinks, changes the way one acts – changing the way one acts, changes the way one thinks. What can be confusing is just what mode of thinking is critical to alter. In the Discourse on the All (Sabba Sutta) the Buddha teaches that one must “abandon the all”, that one must let go of their attachment to phenemona. What ever is seen, heard, smelled, tasted, touched and thought (the skandhas) whether pleasurable, painful or neutral must be abandoned. Knowing directly, through experience that all things, objects, feelings, emotions and formations are subject to arising and falling away that one can alleviate all three forms of suffering is an empowering realization.

These aspects of suffering – dukkha-dukkha, viparinama-dukkha and sankhara-dukkha – describe the types of discontentment and anguish we may struggle with internally and through discernment and the process of coming to terms with them one can begin to alleviate their impact. They are aspects of suffering that we can take control of because we have the knowledge and resources to do so. We can take deep and open look at contemporary life and realize there is another pervasive and encompassing suffering going on in the world. It is suffering that can only be addressed through social engagement.
Let’s name it mahajanika-dukkha, mahajanika is the Pali word for social so it is social-suffering. View this type of discontentment and anguish as arising from social and economic factors beyond the immediate control of those experiencing it. Think of peoples all over the world who don’t have the opportunities or resources to deal with issues such as poverty, famine, lack of clean water and violence. The peoples whose governments neglect or abuse them, whose religious and secular institutions control them without bringing benefit to their lives. They are experiencing mahajanika-dukkha. It isn’t that the people suffering don’t want a better life, it is that their present circumstances deny them the opportunity and resources to achieve it. It is the responsibility of those who have the resources and knowledge to engage these issues alongside the people and become a factor in combatting suffering.

The Buddha said, “This is that all which, by knowing it directly, by fully understanding it, by developing dispassion toward it, and by forsaking it, one will be able to destroy suffering.” We first have to accept and understand the reality of discontentment, suffering and anguish that we encounter. Compassion is the path to recognizing the need, dispassion (altruism) the path to realizing a solution. In each instance that there is lessening or reversing of the causes of suffering then those who live with discontentment and anguish can forsake it for an opportunity to participate in human flourishing.