Dhamma Wheel Buddhist Forum

The First Noble Truth is not a dismal metaphysical statement saying that everything is suffering. Notice that there is a difference between a metaphysical doctrine in which you are making a statement about The Absolute and a Noble Truth which is a reflection. A Noble Truth is a truth to reflect upon; it is not an absolute; it is not The Absolute. This is where Western people get very confused because they interpret this Noble Truth as a kind of metaphysical truth of Buddhism - but it was never meant to be that.

You can see that the First Noble Truth is not an absolute statement because of the Fourth Noble Truth, which is the way of non-suffering. You cannot have absolute suffering and then have a way out of it, can you? That doesn’t make sense. Yet some people will pick up on the First Noble Truth and say that the Buddha taught that everything is suffering.

The Pali word, dukkha, means "incapable of satisfying" or "not able to bear or withstand anything": always changing, incapable of truly fulfilling us or making us happy. The sensual world is like that, a vibration in nature. It would, in fact, be terrible if we did find satisfaction in the sensory world because then we wouldn’t search beyond it; we’d just be bound to it. However, as we awaken to this dukkha, we begin to find the way out so that we are no longer constantly trapped in sensory consciousness.

indian_buddhist wrote:1. There is Suffering in Life

or

2. Entire life is Suffering except when you are in Nibbana?.

tiltbillings wrote:

indian_buddhist wrote:1. There is Suffering in Life

or

2. Entire life is Suffering except when you are in Nibbana?.

The answer is #1 with qualifications.

indian_buddhist wrote:

tiltbillings wrote:

indian_buddhist wrote:1. There is Suffering in Life

or

2. Entire life is Suffering except when you are in Nibbana?.

The answer is #1 with qualifications.

Qualifications meaning we can make it worse or better?. (Like stopping clinging to the 5 aggregates)?.

Entire life is Suffering

Zom wrote:

Entire life is Suffering

Not suffering, but dukkha. Dukkha means that life is not satisfactory at its very basic level -- and this includes suffering and pain as well.

"Monks, there are these three kinds of suffering.[1] What three? Suffering caused by pain,[2] suffering caused by the formations (or conditioned existence),[3] suffering due to change.[4] It is for the full comprehension, clear understanding, ending and abandonment of these three forms of suffering that the Noble Eightfold Path is to be cultivated..."


Notes
1.Dukkhataa, an abstract noun denoting "suffering" in the most general sense.2.Dukkha-dukkhataa, the actual feeling of physical or mental pain or anguish.3.Sankhaara-dukkhataa, the suffering produced by all "conditioned phenomena" (i.e., sankhaaras, in the most general sense: see BD [Buddhist Dictionary (2nd ed.), by Ven. Nyaa.natiloka, Ven. Nyaa.naponika (ed.), Colombo 1972] s.v. sankhaara I, 4). This includes also experiences associated with hedonically neutral feeling. The suffering inherent in the formations has its roots in the imperfectability of all conditioned existence, and in the fact that there cannot be any final satisfaction within the incessant turning of the Wheel of Life. The neutral feeling associated with this type of suffering is especially the indifference of those who do not understand the fact of suffering and are not moved by it.4.Viparinaama-dukkhataa, the suffering associated with pleasant bodily and mental feelings: "because they are the cause for the arising of pain when they change" (VM XIV, 35).

tiltbillings wrote:

Zom wrote:

Entire life is Suffering

Not suffering, but dukkha. Dukkha means that life is not satisfactory at its very basic level -- and this includes suffering and pain as well.

As one unpacks the sutta discussions of change and dukkha, we see that life is not satisfactory to hang on to, being empty of any lasting, unchanging reality.

SarathW wrote:Even Arahants suffer from bodily pain .

indian_buddhist wrote: In other words, once we progress on the path we could reduce "Dukkha" (all types of it) to a mere 10% or less?.

This is a crude way of explaining but I hope you get the picture.

"Now, the well-instructed disciple of the noble ones, when touched with a feeling of pain, does not sorrow, grieve, or lament, does not beat his breast or become distraught. So he feels one pain: physical, but not mental. Just as if they were to shoot a man with an arrow and, right afterward, did not shoot him with another one, so that he would feel the pain of only one arrow. In the same way, when touched with a feeling of pain, the well-instructed disciple of the noble ones does not sorrow, grieve, or lament, does not beat his breast or become distraught. He feels one pain: physical, but not mental.

indian_buddhist wrote:1. There is Suffering in Life

or

2. Entire life is Suffering except when you are in Nibbana?.

kirk5a wrote:

"Now, the well-instructed disciple of the noble ones, when touched with a feeling of pain, does not sorrow, grieve, or lament, does not beat his breast or become distraught. So he feels one pain: physical, but not mental. Just as if they were to shoot a man with an arrow and, right afterward, did not shoot him with another one, so that he would feel the pain of only one arrow. In the same way, when touched with a feeling of pain, the well-instructed disciple of the noble ones does not sorrow, grieve, or lament, does not beat his breast or become distraught. He feels one pain: physical, but not mental.

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka ... .than.html