3.2 Samma Sambodhi
3.2.1 Dukkha-ariyasacca
The first of the Four Noble Truths is the Noble Truth of Dukkha, in
Pali : Dukkha-ariyasacca, is a compound term of two words, that is, dukkha and ariyasacca.In ordinary usage, dukkhameans 'suffering', ,pain,, ,sorrow,or 'misery' and so on. In this sense birth is suffering, old age is suffering,disease is suffering, and death is suffering.Any situation, which makes one sad, unhappy or sorrowful, is suffering.
However, in Buddha's teaching, dukkha has a much deeper meaning.
There are situations which, for the time being, may appear to be happy, but
such happiness may not last. So, anything that is not permanent is also dukkha.
Furthermore, if anything is subject to change that too is dukkha. There is
nothing that remains unchanged. The body changes from being young to
being old, though we cannot see that, it is constantly changing.
The Buddha does not deny happiness in life, when He says that there is
suffering. on the contrary, He admits different forms of happiness, both
material and spiritual, forlaymen as wel as monks. In the Anguttara-nikaya,
one of the five original Collections in Pali contain the Buddha's discourses.
There is a list of happiness (sukhani, such as the happiness of family life
and the happiness of the life of a recluse, the happiness of sensual pleasures,
the happiness of renunciation, the happiness of attachment and the happiness
of detachment, physical happiness and mental happiness etc. However, all
these are included in dukkha. Even the very pure spiritual states of dhyana
(trance) attained by the practice of higher meditation, free from even a shadow
of suffering in the accepted sense of the word, states which may be described
as unmixed happiness, as well as the state of dhyana which is free from
sensations both pleasant (sukha) and unpleasant (dukkha) and is only the
pure equanimity and the awareness - even these very high spiritual states are
included indukkha.
The Buddha was realistic and of objective. He says, with regard to life
and the enjoyment of sense-pleasures, that one should clearly understand
three things:-
( 1 ) attraction or enjoyment (as s ada)
(2) evil consequence or danger or unsatisfactorines s (adrnava) and
(3) freedom or liberation (nissarana).
when you see a pleasant, charming and beautiful person whom you
like, you are attracted, you enjoy seeing that person again and again, you
derive pleasure and satisfaction from that person. This is the enjoyment
(assada).It is a fact of experience, but this enjoyment is not permanent,
just as that person and all his (or her) attractions are not permanent either.
When the situation changes, when you cannot see that person and when you
are deprived of this enjoyment, you become sad, you may become
unreasonable and unbalanced. you may even behave foolishly. This is the
evil, unsatisfactory and dangerous side of the picture (adtnava). This, too, is
a fact of experience. Now, if you have no attachment to the person and if you
are completely detached, that is you freedom, and liberation (nissarana).
These three things are true with regard to all enjoyment in life.
From this point, it is evident that we must take account of life of the preasures as we, as of its pains and sorrows, and arso be free from them, in order to understand the life completery and objectively. onry then, it is true that the riberation is possibre. Regarding this question, the Buddha says: 'o bhikkhus' if any recluses or brdhmanas d,onot urd..stand objectively in the way that the enjoyment of sense-pleasures is enjoyment, that their unsatisfactoriness is the unsatisfactoriness, that the liberation from them is the liberation' Then, it is not possible that they themselves will certainly understand the desire for sense-pleasures completely, or that they will be able to instruct other persons to that end, or that the person following their instruction will compretery understand the desire for sense_pleasures.
The conception of Dukkhamay be viewed from three aspects :_
(1) dukkha as ordinary sufferi ng (dukkha-dukkha),
(2) dukkha as produced by change (viparinama-dukkha) and,
(3) dukkhaas a conditioned state (samkhara-dukkrta).
All kinds of suffering in lifetike birth, old age, sickness, death, association with unpreasant persons and conditions, ,.purution from the roved ones and the pleasant conditions, not getting what one desires, grief, ramentation, distress - all such forms ofphysical and mental suffering, which are universaliy accepted as suffering or pain, are included in dukkhaas ordinary suffering (dukkha-dukkha).
A happy feeling, a happy condition in life, is not permanent, not everlasting. It changes sooner or rater. when it changes, it produces pain, suffering' and unhappiness. This vicissitude is include dind ukkha as suffering produced by change (Vipariytdma_dukkha).
It is easy to understand the two forms of sufferin g (dukkha) mentioned above' No one