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# Dukkha

No single English word adequately captures the full depth, range, and subtlety of the crucial Pali term dukkha. The translators of the passages quoted in these pages have used various translations of the word ("stress," "unsatisfactoriness," "suffering," etc.) in an attempt to get to the heart of it. There may be value in not getting too comfortable with any one particular translation of the word dukkha, since the entire thrust of the Buddha's teaching is to continually widen and deepen one's understanding into the nature of dukkha. One helpful rule of thumb: as soon as you think you've found the best translation for dukkha, think again: for no matter how you describe dukkha, it's always larger, subtler, and more unsatisfactory than that.

### The definition

> "Birth is dukkha, aging is dukkha, death is dukkha; sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, & despair are dukkha; association with the unbeloved is dukkha; separation from the loved is dukkha; not getting what is wanted is dukkha. In short, the five clinging-aggregates are dukkha."

> > -- SN LVI.11

### A contemporary definition:

> Dukkha is:

> Disturbance, irritation, dejection, worry, despair, fear, dread, anguish, anxiety; vulnerability, injury, inability, inferiority; sickness, aging, decay of body and faculties, senility; pain/pleasure; excitement/boredom; deprivation/excess; desire/frustration, suppression; longing/aimlessness; hope/hopelessness; effort, activity, striving/repression; loss, want, insufficiency/satiety; love/lovelessness, friendlessness; dislike, aversion/attraction; parenthood/childlessness; submission/rebellion; decision/indecisiveness, vacillation, uncertainty.

> > -- Francis Story in Suffering, in Vol. II of The Three Basic Facts of Existence (Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society, 1983)

### Only dukkha

> "Both formerly & now, it is only dukkha that I describe, and the cessation of dukkha."

> > SN XXII.86

### Three kinds of dukkha

> "There are these three forms of stressfulness, my friend: the stressfulness of pain, the stressfulness of fabrication, the stressfulness of change. These are the three forms of stressfulness."

> ...

> [Jambukhadika the wanderer:] "What is the path, what is the practice for the full comprehension of these forms of stressfulness?"

> "Precisely this Noble Eightfold Path, my friend -- right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration. This is the path, this is the practice for the full comprehension of these forms of stressfulness."

> > SN XXXVIII.14

See also:

- First Noble Truth

Revised: Mon 10 September 2001