Duḥkha (/ˈduːkə/)(Sanskrit; Pali: dukkha), 'unease', "standing unstable," commonly translated as "suffering", "pain", or "unhappiness", is an important concept in Buddhism, Jainism and Hinduism. Its meaning depends on the context, and may refer more specifically to the "unsatisfactoriness" or "unease" of mundane life, not being at ease when driven by craving/grasping and ignorance.^{[1][2][3][4][note 1]}

While the term dukkha has often been derived from the prefix du ("bad" or "difficult") and the root kha ("empty," "hole"), meaning a badly fitting axle-hole of a cart or chariot giving "a very bumpy ride,"^[5][6] it may actually be derived from duḥ-stha, a "dis-/ bad- + stand-", that is, "standing badly, unsteady," "unstable."^{[7][8][9][10]}

In Buddhism, dukkha is part of the first of the Four Noble Truths and one of the three marks of existence. The term also appears in scriptures of Hinduism, such as the Upanishads, in discussions of moksha (spiritual liberation).^[11][12]

Etymology and meaning

Duḥkha (Sanskrit: दुःख; Pali: dukkha) is a term found in the Upanishads and Buddhist texts, meaning anything that is "uneasy, uncomfortable, unpleasant, difficult, causing pain or sadness".^[13][14] It is also a concept in Indian religions about the nature of life that innately includes the "unpleasant", "suffering", "pain", "sorrow", "distress", "grief" or "misery."^[13][14] The term duḥkha does not have a one-word English translation, and embodies diverse aspects of unpleasant human experiences.^[2][14] It is often understood as the opposite of sukha, meaning "happiness," "comfort" or "ease."^[15]

Etymology

Axle hole

The word has been explained in recent times as a derivation from Aryan terminology for an axle hole, referring to an axle hole which is not in the center and leads to a bumpy, uncomfortable ride. According to 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.^[5]

Joseph Goldstein, American vipassana teacher and writer, 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.^[6]

'Standing unstable'

However, according to Monier Monier-Williams, the actual roots of the Pali term dukkha appear to be Sanskrit दुस्- (dus-, "bad") + स्था (stha, "to stand").^{[7][note 2]} Regular phonological changes in the development of Sanskrit into the various Prakrits led to a shift from dus-sthā to duḥkha to dukkha.

Analayo concurs, stating that dukkha as derived from duh-stha, "standing badly," "conveys nuances of "uneasiness" or of being "uncomfortable."^[8] Silk Road philologist Christopher I. Beckwith elaborates on this derivation.^[16] According to Beckwith:

...although the sense of duḥkha in Normative Buddhism is traditionally given as 'suffering', that and similar interpretations are highly unlikely for Early Buddhism. Significantly, Monier-Williams himself doubts the usual explanation of duḥkha and presents an alternative one immediately after it, namely: duḥ-stha "'standing badly,' unsteady, disquieted (lit. and fig.); uneasy", and so on. This form is also attested, and makes much better sense as the opposite of the Rig Veda sense of sukha, which Monier-Williams gives in full.^{[9][note 3]}

Translation

The literal meaning of duhkha, as used in a general sense is "suffering" or "painful."^{[note 4]} Its exact translation depends on the context.^{[note 5]} Contemporary translators of Buddhist texts use a variety of English words to convey the aspects of dukh. Early Western translators of Buddhist texts (before the 1970s) typically translated the Pali term dukkha as "suffering." Later translators have emphasized that "suffering" is a too limited translation for the term duḥkha, and have preferred to either leave the term untranslated,^[15] or to clarify that translation with terms such as anxiety, distress, frustration, unease, unsatisfactoriness, not having what one wants, having what one doesn't want, etc.^{[18][19][20][note 6]} In the sequence "birth is painful," dukhka may be translated as "painful."^[21] When related to vedana, "feeling," dukkha ("unpleasant," "painful") is the opposite of sukkha ("pleasure," "pleasant"), yet all feelings are dukkha in that they are impermanent, conditioned phenomena, which are unsatisfactory, incapable of providing lasting satisfaction.^{[citation needed]} The term "unsatisfactoriness" then is often used to emphasize the unsatisfactoriness of "life under the influence of afflictions and polluted karma."^{[22][23][24][25][26][note 7]}

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Early Buddhism

Duḥkha is one of the three marks of existence, namely anitya ("impermanent"), duḥkha ("unsatisfactory"), anatman (without a lasting essence).^{[note 8]}

Within the Buddhist sutras, duḥkha has a broad meaning, and is divided in three categories:^[27]

• Dukkha-dukkha, aversion to physical suffering – this includes the physical and mental sufferings of birth, aging, illness, dying; distress due to what is not desirable.
• Viparinama-dukkha, the frustration of disappearing happiness – this is the duḥkha of pleasant or happy experiences changing to unpleasant when the causes and conditions that produced the pleasant experiences cease.
• Sankhara-dukkha, the unsatisfactoriness of changing and impermanent "things" – the incapability of conditioned things to give us lasting happiness. 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."^[28] On this level, the term indicates a lack of lasting satisfaction, or 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 duḥkha, starting with saṃsāra, the ongoing process of death and rebirth itself:^{[note 9]}

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

Early emphasis is on the importance of developing insight into the nature of duḥkha, the conditions that cause it, and how it can be overcome. This process is formulated in the teachings on the Four Noble Truths.

Chinese Buddhism

Chinese Buddhist tradition has been influenced by Taoism and Confucian theory that advocates that duhkha (古:十Ten directions, 口 hole or opening) is associated to the theory of seven emotions of endogenous disease through the formation of the spirit of the po a term that relates to the Western psychological notion of ego or the theological reference to the human soul. This theory is expounded in the application of traditional Chinese medicine for the treatment and prevention of pain and suffering from illness, disease and ignorance.^{[30] [31]}

Literal suffering and awakening

Awakening, that is, awakening to one's true mind of emptiness and compassion, does not necessarily end physical suffering. In the Buddhist tradition, suffering after awakening is often explained as the working-out or untangling of karma of one's previous present life.

Hinduism

In Hinduism, duḥkha encompasses many meanings such as the phenomenological senses of pain and grief, a deep-seated dissatisfaction with the limitations of worldly existence, and the devastation of impermanence.^[32]

In Hindu scriptures, the earliest Upaniṣads — the Bṛhadāraṇyaka and the Chāndogya — in all likelihood predate the advent of Buddhism.^{[note 10]} In these scriptures of Hinduism, the Sanskrit word duḥkha (दुःख) appears in the sense of "suffering, sorrow, distress", and in the context of a spiritual pursuit and liberation through the knowledge of Atman (soul/self).^[11][12][33]

The verse 4.4.14 of the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad states:

The verse 7.26.2 of the Chāndogya Upaniṣad states:

The concept of sorrow and suffering, and self-knowledge as a means to overcome it, appears extensively with other terms in the pre-Buddhist Upanishads.^[39] The term Duhkha also appears in many other middle and later post-Buddhist Upanishads such as the verse 6.20 of Shvetashvatara Upanishad,^[40] as well as in the Bhagavad Gita, all in the contexts of moksha and bhakti.^{[41][note 13]}

Verse 2.56 of the Bhagavad Gita states:

And verse 8.15 of the Bhagavad Gita states:

The term also appears in the foundational Sutras of the six schools of Hindu philosophy, such as the opening lines of Samkhya karika of the Samkhya school.^[45][46] The Samkhya school identifies three types of suffering.^[47] The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali state that "for one who has discrimination, everything is suffering" (duḥkham eva sarvaṁ vivekinaḥ).^[48]

Jainism

Duḥkha is explained in the Tattvartha Sutra, an authoritative Jain scripture from the 2nd century.^[49]

See also

• Existential despair
• Four Noble Truths
• Nirodha
• Noble Eightfold Path
• Pathos
• Samudaya
• The Sickness Unto Death
• Suffering
• Sukha
• Taṇhā

Notes

References

Sources

Printed sources

Web-sources

External links

• Everything Is Teaching Us, Ajahn Chah (2018), Amaravati Publications
• How does mindfulness transform suffering? I: the nature and origins of dukkha, JD Teasdale, M Chaskalson (2011)
• Explanations of dukkha, Tilmann Vetter (1998), Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies
• What Buddha Taught, Walpola Rahula
• Dukkha, edited by John T. Bullitt - Access to Insight
• The Buddha's Concept of Dukkha, Kingsley Heendeniya
• Ku 苦 entry^{[permanent dead link]} (use "guest" with no password for one-time login), Digital Dictionary of Buddhism
• The Buddha Did Not Teach an End to Suffering, Douglas C. Bates