DUKKHATA
| Dukkha means both pain and suffering and also the general
unsatisfactoriness of conditioned existence. A fundamental reason why existence is
unsatisfactory is because it is connected with pain, subject to suffering. The pain and
suffering to a great extent are rooted in impermanence. We crave for a world where everything that we value and love will remain forever, but when it changes we undergo suffering. The five aggregates themselves are impermanent. We would like to preserve them, to dominate them with our will but when they escape our grasp we meet with dissatisfaction. Dukkha has the meaning of "oppression by rise and fall". When we contrast the rise and fall with our desire for peace and stability, then the process of rise and fall seems oppressive. For detailed discussion of Dukkha see First Noble Truth |