The Buddha’s first teaching: on suffering
This is a short paper I wrote for buddhist philosophy class on the first teaching given by the Buddha, the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta. In this discourse he defines the four noble truths, beginning by explaining the pervasive nature of suffering (‘dukkha’ in the original pali). This paper is p academic and not very positive vibes cuz that’s not what the prompt was about but for those interested here u go :)
To understand the meaning of suffering in Buddhist thought, it's important to explore the original word that we translate it from. It seems as if dukkha is a word that exists in response to all that it is not. It is often discussed in contrast with the word ‘sukkha’, a similar word with an opposing meaning. On a base level sukkha connotes a positive experience, and dukkha a negative one. Sukkha can mean ease, pleasure, comfort, happiness, and well-being. Dukkha appears where these qualities are absent. It has been variously translated as discomfort, unease, unsatisfactoriness, difficulty, and unhappiness. The Buddha spends the first words of his first teaching illuminating all the places that this dukkah arises, bringing his new students face to face with the fundamentally unsatisfactory nature of reality.
The Dhammacakkappavattana sutta begins with the Buddha explaining how dukkah pervades all existence. He describes the 3 different forms of dukkah, tells that there is a way out of this experience, and describes the way. These are the four noble truths. To find a way out of this omnipresent unease, we must first see the depth to which we are trapped by it. It is from this understanding that the Buddha taught the 3 types of suffering we are subject to in conditioned existence.
The type of suffering that is most immediately obvious is dukkha-dukkha, the suffering of suffering. Experiencing it is as easy as getting a papercut or stubbing your toe, it is an unpleasantness that the mind experiences as a result of pain. While the event that caused the pain may come from physical stimuli, dukkah-dukkah refers to the registering of the pain as unpleasant by the mind.
The 2nd kind of suffering is called viparinama-dukkha, or the suffering of change. It arises in response to pleasurable experiences, manifesting in the realization that the pleasure will inevitably end. It is a negative response to the transience of conditioned existence, an emotional sense of loss or craving for pleasure. On a subtle level it could be a dissatisfaction with the pleasurable sensation itself, because the mind knows it will end despite the dopamine rush of its present distraction.
The 3rd kind of suffering is called sankhara-dukkha, or pervasive compounding suffering. Instead of simple aversion to a stimulus perceived as painful, this discomfort is a creation of the ongoing judging mind, which assigns blame and attempts to find escape from experiences of dukkha-dukkha. It is a manifestation of past karmas, and it is always at work generating stories to remove the mind from present experience. It is especially noticeable under stress, manifesting as reflection, projection, anxiety, worry, and depression. It is existential suffering, the suffering of the mind examining the reality of conditioned existence without knowing a way out.
By beginning his first discourse by expounding upon dukkha, the Buddha laid the groundwork for teachings he would give throughout the rest of his life. In understanding dukkha and the varied ways it manifests, we see that the underlying experience of conditioned existence is the absence of feeling good. Sometimes this is experienced more grossly, and sometimes more subtle, but the sensation of wrongness is pervasive and unlimited. According to the Buddha, it is only through accepting this fact and beginning to eradicate the roots of dukkha, that the journey toward liberation can begin.