Dukkha

Translations of dukkha
English	suffering, anxiety, stress, discontentment, unsatisfactoriness, etc.
Pali	dukkha (Dev: दुक्ख)
Sanskrit	duḥkha (Dev: दुःख)
Bengali	দুঃখ dukkhô
Burmese	ဒုက္ခ (IPA: [doʊʔkʰa̰])
Chinese	苦 (pinyin: kǔ)
Japanese	苦 (rōmaji: ku)
Korean	苦 (ko)
Sinhala	දුක්ඛ සත්යය
Tibetan	སྡུག་བསྔལ། (Wylie: sdug bsngal; THL: dukngal)
Thai	ทุกข์
Vietnamese	khổ / Bất toại
Glossary of Buddhism

Dukkha (Pāli; Sanskrit: duḥkha; Tibetan: སྡུག་བསྔལ་ sdug bsngal, pr. "duk-ngel") is a Buddhist term, commonly translated as "suffering", "anxiety", "stress", or "unsatisfactoriness". It refers to the fundamental unsatisfactoriness and painfulness of mundane life.

Etymology

Dukkha (Pali; Sanskrit duḥkha) means "suffering," "pain," "sorrow" or "misery." It is opposed to the word sukha, meaning "happiness," "comfort" or "ease."^[1]

The word is derived from Aryan terminology for the axle hole, referring to an axle hole which is not in the center and leads to a bumpy, uncomfortable ride. Winthrop Sargeant,

The ancient Aryans who brought the Sanskrit language to India were a nomadic, horse- and cattle-breeding people who travelled in horse- or ox-drawn vehicles. Su and dus are prefixes indicating good or bad. The word kha, in later Sanskrit meaning "sky," "ether," or "space," was originally the word for "hole," particularly an axle hole of one of the Aryan's vehicles. Thus sukha … meant, originally, "having a good axle hole," while duhkha meant "having a poor axle hole," leading to discomfort.^[2]

Joseph Goldstein explains the etymology as follows:

The word [dukkha] is made up of the prefix du and the root kha. Du means “bad” or “difficult.” Kha means “empty.” “Empty,” here, refers to several things—some specific, others more general. One of the specific meanings refers to the empty axle hole of a wheel. If the axle fits badly into the center hole, we get a very bumpy ride. This is a good analogy for our ride through saṃsāra.^[3]

Translating the term dukkha

Contemporary translators of Buddhist texts use a variety of English words to convey the aspects of dukkha. Early Western translators of Buddhist texts (before the 1970s) typically translated the Pali term dukkha as "suffering." Later translators have emphasized that "suffering" is too limited a translation for the term dukkha, and have preferred to either leave the term untranslated or to clarify that translation with terms such as anxiety, stress, frustration, unease, unsatisfactoriness, etc.^{[4][5][6][web 1]} Many contemporary teachers, scholars, and translators have used the term "unsatisfactoriness" to emphasize the subtlest aspects of dukkha.^{[7][8][9][10][11]} Many translators prefer to leave the term untranslated.^{[1][note 1]}

Meaning

Within the Buddhist sutras, dukkha is divided in three categories:

• Dukkha-dukkha, the dukkha of painful experiences. This includes the physical and mental sufferings of birth, aging, illness, dying; and the anxiety or frustration of coming across what is not desirable.
• Viparinama-dukkha, the dukkha of the changing nature of all things. This includes the anxiety or stress of trying to hold on to what is desirable; and the frustration of not getting what you want.
• Sankhara-dukkha, the dukkha of conditioned experience. This includes "a basic unsatisfactoriness pervading all existence, all forms of life, because all forms of life are changing, impermanent and without any inner core or substance."^{[web 2]} On this level, the term indicates a lack of satisfaction, a sense that things never measure up to our expectations or standards.

Various sutras sum up how life in this "mundane world" is regarded to be dukkha, starting with samsara, the ongoing process of death and rebirth itself:^{[note 2]}

1. Birth is dukkha, aging is dukkha, illness is dukkha, death is dukkha;
2. Sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, & despair are dukkha;
3. Association with the unbeloved is dukkha; separation from the loved is dukkha;
4. Not getting what is wanted is dukkha.
5. In conclusion, the five clinging-aggregates are dukkha.

Dukkha is one of the three marks of existence, namely dukkha ("suffering"), anatta (not-self), anicca ("impermanence").

The Buddhist tradition emphasizes the importance of developing insight into the nature of dukkha, the conditions that cause it, and how it can be overcome. This process is formulated in the teachings on the Four Noble Truths.

Hinduism

In Hindu literature, the earliest Upaniṣads — the Bṛhadāraṇyaka and the Chāndogya — are believed to predate or coincide with the advent of Buddhism.^{[note 3]} In these texts' verses, the Sanskrit word duḥkha (translated below as "suffering" and "distress") occurs only twice. In the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad, it states (in English and Sanskrit):

English	Sanskrit
While we are still here, we have come to know it [ātman]. If you've not known it, great is your destruction. Those who have known it — they become immortal. As for the rest — only suffering awaits them.[13]	ihaiva santo 'tha vidmas tad vayaṃ na ced avedir mahatī vinaṣṭiḥ ye tad vidur amṛtās te bhavanty athetare duḥkham evāpiyanti[web 3]

In the Chāndogya Upaniṣad, it is written:

English	Sanskrit
When a man rightly sees, he sees no death, no sickness or distress. When a man rightly sees, he sees all, he wins all, completely.[14][note 4]	na paśyo mṛtyuṃ paśyati na rogaṃ nota duḥkhatām sarvaṃ ha paśyaḥ paśyati sarvam āpnoti sarvaśaḥ[web 4]

Thus, as in Buddhism, these texts emphasize that one overcomes duḥkha through the development of understanding.^{[note 5]}

See also

• Four Noble Truths
• Nirodha
• Noble Eightfold Path
• Samudaya
• Suffering
• Sukha
• Taṇhā
• Criticism of Buddhism#Nihilism and focus on sufferings

Notes

1. Contemporary translators have used a variety of English words to translate the term dukkha; translators commonly use different words to translate aspects of the term. For example, dukkha has been translated as follows in many contexts:
   • Anguish
   • Anxiety (Chogyam Trungpa, The Truth of Suffering, pp. 8–10)
   • Affliction (Brazier)
   • Dissatisfaction (Pema Chodron, Chogyam Trunpa)
   • Discomfort
   • Discontent
   • Frustration (Dalai Lama, Four Noble Truths, p. 38)
   • Misery
   • Sorrow
   • Stress (Thanissaro Bhikkhu, Jon Kabat-Zin)
   • Suffering (Thich Nhat Hanh, Ajahn Succito, Chogyam Trungpa, Rupert Gethin, Dalai Lama, et al.)
   • Uneasiness (Chogyam Trungpa)
   • Unease (Rupert Gethin)
   • Unhappiness
   • Unsatisfactoriness (Dalai Lama, Bhikkhu Bodhi, Rupert Gethin, et al.)
2. Paul Williams: "All rebirth is due to karma and is impermanent. Short of attaining enlightenment, in each rebirth one is born and dies, to be reborn elsewhere in accordance with the completely impersonal causal nature of one's own karma. The endless cycle of birth, rebirth, and redeath, is samsara."^[12]
3. See, e.g., Patrick Olivelle (1996), Upaniṣads (Oxford: Oxford University Press), ISBN 978-0-19-283576-5, p. xxxvi: "The scholarly consensus, well-founded I think, is that the Bṛhadāraṇyaka and the Chāndogya are the two earliest Upaniṣads.... The two texts as we have them are, in all likelihood, pre-Buddhist; placing them in the seventh to sixth centuries BCE may be reasonable, give or take a century or so."
4. This statement is comparable to the Pali Canon's Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta (SN 56.11) where sickness and death are identified as examples of dukkha.
5. For a general discussion of the core Indian spiritual goal of developing transcendent "seeing," see, e.g., Hamilton, Sue (2000/2001), Indian Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction, (Oxford: Oxford U. Press), pp. 9-10, ISBN 978-0-19-285374-5.

References

1. Walpola Rahula 2007, Kindle Locations 542-550.
2. Sargeant 2009, p. 303.
3. Goldstein 2013, p. 289.
4. Walpola Rahula 2007, Kindle locations 524-528.
5. Prebish 1993.
6. Keown 2003.
7. Dalai Lama 1998, p. 38.
8. Gethin 1998, p. 61.
9. Smith & Novak 2009, Kindle location 2769.
10. Keown 2000, Kindle Locations 932-934.
11. Bhikkhu Bodhi 2011, p. 6.
12. Williams 2002, p. 74-75.
13. BU 4 April 2014, trans. Olivelle (1996), p. 66.
14. CU 7.26.2, trans. Olivelle (1996), p. 166.

Sources

Printed sources

• Bhikkhu Bodhi (2000), The Connected Discourses of the Buddha: A New Translation of the Samyutta Nikaya, Boston: Wisdom Publications, ISBN 0-86171-331-1
• Bhikkhu Bodhi (2011), The Noble Eightfold Path: Way to the End of Suffering, Independent Publishers Group, Kindle Edition
• Brazier, David (2001), The Feeling Buddha, Robinson Publishing
• Carrithers, Michael (1986), The Buddha. Cited in Founders of Faith, Oxford University Press
• Chogyam Trungpa (1976), The Myth of Freedom and the Way of Meditation, Shambhala
• Chogyam Trungpa (2009), Leif, Judy, ed., The Truth of Suffering and the Path of Liberation, Shambhala
• Dalai Lama (1998), The Four Noble Truths, Thorsons
• Dalai Lama (1992), The Meaning of Life, translated and edited by Jeffrey Hopkins, Wisdom
• Epstein, Mark (2004), Thoughts Without A Thinker: Psychotherapy from a Buddhist Perspective, Basic Books, Kindle Edition
• Geshe Tashi Tsering (2005), The Four Noble Truths: The Foundation of Buddhist Thought, Volume I, Wisdom, Kindle Edition
• Gethin, Rupert (1998), Foundations of Buddhism, Oxford University Press
• Goldstein, Joseph (2002), One Dharma: The Emerging Western Buddhism, HarperCollins
• Goldstein, Joseph (2013), Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Awakening, Sounds True, Kindle Edition
• Harvey, Peter (1990), Introduction to Buddhism, Cambridge University Press
• Holmes, Edward (1957), The Creed of the Buddha, Bodley Head
• Kalupahana, David J. (1992), A history of Buddhist philosophy, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Private Limited
• Keown, Damien (2000), Buddhism: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, Kindle Edition
• Keown, Damien (2003), Dictionary of Buddhism, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-860560-9
• Lama Surya Das (1997), Awakening the Buddha Within, Broadway Books, Kindle Edition
• Leifer, Ron (1997), The Happiness Project, Snow Lion
• Lopez, Donald S. (2001), The Story of Buddhism, HarperCollins
• Mipham, Sakyong (2003), Turning the Mind into an Ally, Riverhead Books
• Moffitt, Phillip (2008), Dancing with Life: Buddhist Insights for Finding Meaning and Joy in the Face of Suffering, Rodale, Kindle Edition
• Monier-Williams, Monier (1899, 1964), A Sanskrit-English Dictionary (PDF), London: Oxford University Press Check date values in: |date= (help)
• Nanamoli, Bhikkhu (1995), The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha: A New Translation of the Majjhima Nikaya, Boston: Wisdom Publications, ISBN 0-86171-072-X
• Nhat Hanh, Thich (1999), The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching, Three River Press
• Prebish, Charles (1993), Historical Dictionary of Buddhism, The Scarecrow Press, ISBN 0-8108-2698-4
• Potter, Karl (2004), The Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies, Vol. IX: BudVetter dhist philosophy from 350 to 600 AD
• Ratan, M. V. Ram Kumar; Rao, D. Bhaskara (2003), Dukkha: Suffering in Early Buddhism, Discovery Publishing House
• Ringu Tulku (2005), Daring Steps Toward Fearlessness: The Three Vehicles of Tibetan Buddhism, Snow Lion
• Ronkin, Noa (2005), Early Buddhist Metaphysics: the Making of a Philosophical Tradition, Routledge
• Sargeant, Winthrop (2009), The Bhagavad Gita, SUNY Press
• Smith, Huston; Novak, Philip (2009), Buddhism: A Concise Introduction, HarperOne, Kindle Edition
• Snelling, John (1987), The Buddhist handbook. A Complete Guide to Buddhist Teaching and Practice, London: Century Paperbacks
• Thanissaro Bhikkhu (1997), Tittha Sutta: Sectarians, AN 3.61, retrieved 12 November 2007
• Traleg Kyabgon (2001), The Essence of Buddhism, Shambhala
• Walpola Rahula (2007), What the Buddha Taught, Grove Press, Kindle Edition

Web-sources

1. Is Buddhism a Pessimistic Way of Life? by Jeffrey Po
2. The Four Noble Truths - By Bhikkhu Bodhi
3. BrhUp 4,4.14. Retrieved 28 December 2008 from "Georg-August-Universität Göttingen" at http://www.sub.uni-goettingen.de/ebene_1/fiindolo/gretil/1_sanskr/1_veda/4_upa/brup___u.htm.
4. ChUp 7,26.2. Retrieved 27 December 2008 from "Georg-August-Universität Göttingen" at http://www.sub.uni-goettingen.de/ebene_1/fiindolo/gretil/1_sanskr/1_veda/4_upa/chup___u.htm.

External links

Online commentaries:

• What Buddha Taught (free online version)

Other sources:

• The Journey Starts Here, Shambhala Sun
• Dukkha, edited by John T. Bullitt - Access to Insight
• The Buddha's Concept of Dukkha, Kingsley Heendeniya
• Ku 苦 entry (use "guest" with no password for one-time login), Digital Dictionary of Buddhism