Jatipi dukkha jarapi dukkha maranampi dukkham.
Birth is stressful, aging is stressful, death is stressful.
Soka-parideva-dukkha-domanassupayasapi dukkha.
Sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress and despair are stressful.
Appiyehi sampayogo dukkho piyehi vippayogo dukkho yamp'iccham na labhati tampi dukkham.
Assocation with things disliked is stressful, separation from things liked is stressful, not getting what one wants is stressful.
Sankhittena pancupadakkhandha dukkha.
In short, the five clinging-aggregates are stressful.
Have you ever wondered why the Buddha felt the need to state and elaborate on the First Noble Truth?
I mean, isn't it obvious that life is stressful?
Who among us does not experience the steady undercurrent of discomfort, unease, dissatisfaction, anguish and suffering?
So why would the Buddha feel compelled to state the obvious?
It seems to me a bit like an emergency room physician telling someone with an enormous head wound, "You have an enormous wound in your head." Uh, yeah. Thanks, doc, I didn't know that.
Do you share my curiosity about this? Maybe I'm missing something obvious (wouldn't be the first time), but I'm genuinely puzzled.
After thinking about this for a bit, here's my hunch about the Buddha's motivation: We humans have developed considerable skill at masking the dukkha that streams through our life.
Specifically, we've created countless ways to defend and deny the reality of our own suffering. Further, we resist those who would point out our problems. Really, we'd prefer not to know.
So, in stating the the First Noble Truth, the Buddha was issuing a wake-up call to the reality of life.
Because as long as we deny reality, our own enormous wound will never heal.
Maybe I shouldn't admit this, but when I first read the First Noble Truth, it was mostly news to me! *^^*
Posted by: Joseph | July 06, 2011 at 02:15 AM
I used to walk around wailing, "I'm suffering! I'm suffering!" When I learn the First of the Four Noble Truths, I was shocked. "Life" is suffering?" Wow. You mean this isn't about me?!
(As I typed "Life is suffering," I had a flash-thought. "Life" - as in all that is around and in us - is suffering. Brings up a sense of responsibility to take care of all that is around and in us, doesn't it.
Posted by: Genju | July 06, 2011 at 06:59 AM
It's like a confirmation of what we already know deep inside, I think. Someone says it out loud, it clarifies it and if we want to get on with the work, the pieces of the puzzle have been laid out before us. That'll be two cents, please.
Posted by: zendotstudio | July 06, 2011 at 07:28 AM
Barry -
As I understand the First Noble Truth, it is telling us not that "life is suffering" but that "suffering exists." That recognition provides a basis for the three subsequent truths, which address the origin, the cessation, and the way to the cessation of conditioned suffering.
I would agree that the conditioned suffering in our lives may not be obvious, especially if we are in denial. Doctors call certain injuries "unrecognized traumas." That term might describe dukkha as well. Calling attention to unrecognized suffering allows us to examine the conditions that have caused or are causing it.
Posted by: Ben Howard | July 06, 2011 at 11:44 AM
Realization of the First Noble Truth should incur the further realization that, as long as you are alive, there will be suffering - no matter what you do.
Once that really settles in, the perfect equivalence of Samsara and Nirvana becomes obvious.
Posted by: Willie R. | July 06, 2011 at 03:11 PM
"Life is filled with suffering, but it is also filled with many wonders, like the blue sky, the sunshine, the eyes of a baby. To suffer is not enough. We must also be in touch with the wonders of life. They are within us and around us, everywhere, any time".
- Thich Nhat Hanh, Being Peace
Posted by: Marcus | July 09, 2011 at 07:51 AM