- Suffering

The Four Noble Truths also known as “The turning of the Dhamma Wheel” is taught by Buddha. Generally, a serious practitioner must know and understand the nature or the gist of suffering. Suffering can be categorized into three types:

1. Suffering of suffering

In addition to illness, old age and death, suffering of suffering refers to the degeneration of our physical and mental faculties. It embodies emotional and mental states as fear, anxiety, sorrow, frustration, grief, discontentment and distress caused by unfulfilled desires, separation from loved ones, to be with those whom one dislikes. All these will affect our well being.

2. Suffering of Change

The suffering of change refers to the fact that everything in life is constantly changing. Everything, whether positive or negative experience, is impermanent, therefore happiness will not last forever, but neither will sadness.

3. All Pervasive Suffering

This is the third type of suffering produced by the changing nature of things. The changing nature of cause and conditions lurks within the pleasant and joyous moments of life. Joy and happiness pass away before long and this passing brings suffering. Nothing is fixated or remains in status quo. No one can escape the stains of the samara virus of suffering.

Suffering and happiness are interdependent and interconnected, given that both are conditioned and will continuously condition each other. For example, when one is hungry, one suffers by feeling grouchy and discomfort. But when a hearty meal is served, one experiences happiness. Should one happily gorge the food and over eats, indigestion will set in, turning the initial form of happiness into suffering.

From this, we can see that most of us will pay scant attention to the dynamics of the web of shifting underlying factors. We can deduce that our minds are “conditioned” to ignore “problems” out of ignorance as we blindly drift through our lives.