{"id":2310,"date":"2024-06-08T13:36:55","date_gmt":"2024-06-08T18:36:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bodhisattvaroad\/?p=2310"},"modified":"2024-05-16T15:12:55","modified_gmt":"2024-05-16T20:12:55","slug":"suffering-the-broken-wheel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bodhisattvaroad\/2024\/06\/suffering-the-broken-wheel\/","title":{"rendered":"Suffering: The Broken Wheel"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\n

\u201cThe seed of suffering in you may be strong, but don\u2019t wait until you have no more suffering before allowing yourself to be happy.\u201d -Thich Nhat Hanh<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/h6>\n

if you\u2019d rather listen to a talk on this subject, click here:\u00a0Suffering<\/a><\/h6>\n Life is full of suffering. That is a foundational teaching in the Buddhist<\/a> tradition. That teaching hasn\u2019t always resonated with me. \u201cSuffering\u201d feels like a really big word. When I think of that word, I think of being tortured or abused or something. But the suffering we\u2019re talking about is often more of a quiet desperation. We have expectations and the world doesn\u2019t meet them all the time. That makes us unhappy. But the world will never meet our expectations. We also suffer because we don\u2019t see the world clearly. We\u2019re confused and deluded and that stops us from reaching our potential.<\/p>\n \n \n \n<\/source><\/picture>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n \ The word we\u2019re translating as \u201csuffering\u201d is \u201cdukkha\u201d. It\u2019s been translated as suffering for hundreds of years now, so that\u2019s not likely to change. But I want to think of it in a bit of a different way. In the original language dukkha has connotations of being off track. A metaphor that is used to define this word is \u201clike an ox cart with a broken wheel\u201d. I don\u2019t really know what an ox cart is, so I want to extend that analogy to make it shopping cart instead.<\/p>\n \ Sometimes you go to the grocery store and you get a shopping cart. The wheel on the cart is a little bit messed up. Maybe it sticks once in a while, or it wobbles a little. It makes the shopping experience a little bit more unpleasant. It\u2019s not so unpleasant that you\u2019ll go back and get another one, but it\u2019s bad enough that you know it\u2019s happening and you wish it would stop.<\/p>\n \ That\u2019s life. Things are a little bit off sometimes. This will never stop coming and going. Sometimes life feels like a cart with a broken wheel. Sometimes it feels like a cart with two or three broken wheels. That is the meaning of suffering.<\/p>\n " The Buddha identified three kinds of suffering. They are:<\/p>\n \ 1)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The suffering of suffering<\/p>\n \ 2)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The suffering of change<\/p>\n \ 3)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The all pervasive suffering of everything composite.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n \ The Suffering of Suffering is defined by Khentrul Lodro Thaye in \u2018The Power of Mind\u2019 as:\u00a0***\u201cAny experience that is unpleasant, unwanted, or painful. Not only physical pain but also mental unhappiness.\u201d<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0This also includes not getting what we want. We have a sort of sense of entitlement, I think. We can get mad at the whole world when events don\u2019t unfold in a way that corresponds to our desires.<\/p>\n*** \ The Suffering of Change represents our wish to hold onto things. Happiness doesn\u2019t last. When we get what we want, sometimes we\u2019re obsessed with thinking about it coming to an end, because everything comes to an end. We suffer when we lose the things we like having and when pleasant circumstances change. We think that if we just get this or that aspect of life figured out, then we\u2019ll have permanent and lasting happiness. Happiness doesn\u2019t last.<\/p>\n \ The All-Pervasive Suffering of Everything Composite is inherent in everything.<\/p>\n \ Khentrul Lodro Thaye describes this as:\u00a0\u201cNot a direct sensation of pleasure or pain but instead the inherent conditions of suffering within each appearance.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n \ This is the underlying suffering that doesn\u2019t come and go. It\u2019s an underlying sense of discomfort that is with us. This discomfort exists because we cling to our self-obsession and we aren\u2019t reaching out potential for wisdom and compassion.<\/p>\n \ So, as I said above, life is a broken wheel that\u2019s messing up our day. But, here\u2019s the thing: that wheel is not a problem unless I decide it\u2019s a problem. I have the power in this situation, although it often feels like I don\u2019t.<\/p>\n " Khentrul Lodro Thaye says,\u00a0\u201cThere isn\u2019t a thing called suffering that exists outside of ourselves. Our way of relating to the objects we perceive causes us to suffer.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n \ It\u2019s empowering if I can change the situation. Pain is inevitable because life is hard. But we can at least learn to manage the way we tend to make our pain worse. I have a great capacity to escalate my own suffering. I suspect that you do too. So let\u2019s make sure we\u2019re working to train our minds so we can learn to stop escalating all the time.<\/p>\n \ ========================================<\/p>\n \ click the bell for a guided meditation:<\/p>\n \n \n <\/source><\/picture><\/a><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n*** ** \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" ** ***\u201cThe seed of suffering in you may be strong, but don\u2019t wait until you have no more suffering before allowing yourself to be happy.\u201d -Thich Nhat Hanh if you\u2019d rather listen to a talk on this subject, click here:\u00a0Suffering Life is full of suffering. That is a foundational teaching in the Buddhist tradition. That teaching […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2668,"featured_media":203,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[639,735,47],"class_list":["post-2310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buddhism","tag-dukkha","tag-khentrul-lodro-thaye","tag-suffering"],"yoast_head":"\nSuffering: The Broken Wheel<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"\u201cThe seed of suffering in you may be strong, but don\u2019t wait until you have no more suffering before allowing yourself to be happy.\u201d -Thich Nhat Hanh if\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bodhisattvaroad\/2024\/06\/suffering-the-broken-wheel\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta 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