Chapter Five: Is Everything Suffering?

- First Noble Truth is suffering; students of Buddha prove that everything on Earth is
suffering; theory of Three Kinds of Suffering (NOT BUDDHA TEACHING)
- First Kind of Suffering “the suffering of suffering” (dukkha dukkhata)
o Suffering associated with unpleasant feelings (pain, feeling too cold)
- Second Kind of Suffering “the suffering of composite things” (samskara dukkhata)
o Whatever comes together eventually comes apart
o All composite things are described as suffering
o Even things that have not decayed yet are seen to be suffering because they will
eventually decay and cause suffering
- Third Kind of Suffering “the suffering associated with change’ (viparinama dukkhata)
o Liver might be good now but when we are old it will cause us to suffer
o No point in celebrating joy because it will eventually turn into suffering
- Suffering is a black cloud that envelops everything
- Joy is an illusion; only suffering is real
- Declared that Buddha taught that all objects of perception are suffering
- Formula: “This is suffering. Life is suffering. Everything is suffering”
o Thought to obtain insight into First Noble Truth, had to repeat the formula
o People said without constant repetition, Four Noble Truths can’t be recognized
- Today, people are not using their intelligence to receive and practice Dharma
o Dangerous to practice without using your own intelligence, without someone
who can show you ways to practice correctly
- Repeating “Life is Suffering” cannot help you understand the true nature of suffering or
reveal the path shown to us by the Buddha
- Buddha says he only wants us to recognize suffering when it is present and to recognize
joy when suffering is absent
- When written down, seeing all things as suffering was widely practiced
- If we think something is permanent and has self when really it is impermanent and
without a separate self, we will suffer
- Suffering regarded as one of the Three Dharma Seals, with impermanence and nonself
- To put suffering on the same level as impermanence and nonself is an error
- Impermanence and nonself are “universal”
o They are a “mark” of all things; suffering is not
- A table will only make us suffer if we attribute permanence or separateness to it
o When we attach ourselves to something, our attachment causes us to suffer
- Anger is impermanent, without a separate self, and filled with suffering
- Buddha taught impermanence and nonself to help us not be caught in signs
- Theory of Three Kinds of Sufferingattempt to justify the universalization of suffering
- Find joy in nirvana
- Buddha taught that nirvana (joy of completely extinguishing our ideas and concepts),
RATHER THAN SUFFERING, is one of the Three Dharma Seals
- Hope people accept the teaching that all things are marked by impermanence, nonself,
and nirvana, and not make too great an effort to prove that everything is suffering
- MISUNDERSTANDING OF BUDDHA TEACHING: all of our suffering is caused by craving
- Discourse on Turning the Wheel of the Dharma: Buddha did say that craving is the cause
of suffering, BUT he said this because craving is the first on the list of afflictions (kleshas)
- Using intelligence, see that craving can be a cause of pain, but other afflictions (anger,
ignorance, suspicion, arrogance, and wrong views) can also cause pain and suffering
- Ignorance (gives rise to wrong perception) is responsible for our pain
- To make the sutras easy to memorize, first item on list represents the whole list
o “eye” for all six organs
o “form” for all Five Aggregates (skandhas)
- Practice identifying causes of suffering; craving and other factors cause suffering
- “Life is suffering” is too general; “craving is the cause of all suffering” is too simplistic
o “The basis for this suffering is such and such an affliction”
- Buddha taught the truth of suffering, and that “dwelling happily in things as they are”
(drishta dharma sukha viharin)
- To succeed, we must stop trying to prove that everything is suffering and stop trying to
prove anything
- Touch the truth of suffering with our mindfulness, we can recognize/identify our specific
suffering, its specific cause, and they way to remove those causes and end our suffering