BUDDHISM, DUKKHA, and REPETITIONS

In Buddha's time, the word Dukkha was used to describe when a wheel was not turning smoothly on its axle.

The invention of continuous rotary motion dates from around 3,500 BCE. This involved the potter's wheel, the spinning wheel and the solid wooden cartwheel.

The first spoked wheel developed around 2,000 BCE. The invention of steel, around 1,500 BCE. furnished a reinforced rim and protected hubroom. The Development of The Wheel is a fascinating subject.

Each of these developments took hundreds of years, but by Buddha's time in 500 BCE., the spoked cartwheel was generating a cultural revolution.

The wheel was the epitome of self-perpetuating motion, with the possibility of momentum. It was a new form of mobility and transport for people and goods. Wheels were the future. Everyone wanted wheels.

The traditional spoked wheel was an excellent symbol for how life wobbles, gets twisted, sometimes blocks or grinds and screeches from friction.

An efficient hub-action was vital for the smooth turning of a wheel. The hub of the ancient wheel needed constant maintenance in order to get the wheel to run smoothly, to make it Sukkha.

Dukkha was not an abstract concept as it is in modern times, it was a very necessary daily fact of life.

Modern suggestions for the interpretation of Dukkha are : suffering, anxiety, distress, unsatisfactory, frustration and stress. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dukkha 2019, 2020, 2021).

But this isn't a question about the meaning of the word Dukkha.

In those days, everyone knew what Dukkha meant.

To answer "What is Dukkha?" with "Dukkha is Suffering" is ridiculous.

Buddha's question was: "What is Dukkha/Suffering?" What is the problem with life's wheel? What is going wrong? What is not running smoothly?

In many texts, it is written that the Five Aggregates are Dukkha. The Aggregates, are five components or parts which describe the process of perception. The Aggregates describe perceptual psychology. Buddha was the world's first psychologist.

These days, it's common knowledge that an object has light waves which enter the retina which sends a neurological signal to the brain. Buddha had to describe the process of perception with words which were available in those days.

The five words he used were: manifest form, sensation, perception, concepts (mental formations), and consciousness,

The First Truth tells us: Our sensory perception is Dukkha, our sensory perception is problematic.

The Aggregates are further clarified in The Five Aggregates.
Dukkha In Depth develops all the background material.
The accepted, normal, traditional ideas on the First Noble Truth are discussed in Suffering: The Traditional First Noble Truth.

The traditional view is that the sensory apparatus is influenced by craving. The origin of dukkha "is that Craving which gives rise to fresh rebirth" (Nyanoponika).

Craving is an extreme form of wanting. In addition, the texts almost always refer to the Five Aggregates as "the Five Aggregates of clinging". 'Clinging' is an extreme form of attachment.

These extreme words, craving and clinging, severely limit the understanding of Buddhism and its universal relevance.

The common present day view, is that pleasure and wanting lead to attachment. And any hope of fulfilment or security through attachment is illusory because of impermanence and change. This is arguably correct but again, it limits the full potential of Buddha's Second Truth.

The everyday sense of: "that craving which gives rise to fresh rebirth" is: "that wanting which leads to fresh repetition".

Of special note is a translation from The Pali Tipitaka, where the origin of Dukkha is "this craving that occurs again and again" – the Pali word normally translated as "rebirth" can obviously also be translated as "again and again".

A fundamental principle of nature is being described – Pleasure and wanting lead to repetition.

If something is pleasurable, it will lead to some form of repetition of the idea as a memory, and often an actual repetition in reality.

The Origin of Dukkha – the start, the first step (and all the other steps in the development) – is that pleasure and delight lead to attraction, wanting, and then repetition.

Attachment, clinging, and craving, are all the results of a long process, they are the consequence of a sequence of repetitions. Similar to a wheel rolling downhill: when an attraction is unhindered, acceleration is inevitable.

It may well be that extreme forms of wanting like craving, lead to extreme forms of repetition like rebirth; but it is obvious that even the smallest want we have, will lead to some form of repetition, either in our memories and hopes, or in actual practical life  – and this is the prime, basic and universal truth.

The origin of Dukkha is that pleasure and wanting, lead to repetitions.

Repetitions involve us in a timeline, a past experience which we want to repeat in the present or future. And, once the repetitions start, once the wheels start turning; then they turn with their own karmic momentum.

Freedom from karma, i.e. freedom from habitual or pre-set repetitions, is the aim of Buddhism.

The First and Second Truth speak of the origin of Dukkha.

The Third and Fourth Truth, and also The Middle Way, show the way to the elimination of Dukkha. The origin of Sukkha.

Please continue with The Middle Way

SECTION FOR SCHOLARS

The texts – which were subject to multiple translations and written more than 400 years after Buddha spoke – have lost their universal application. Buddhists who wish to question this in depth, are invited to read Dukkha in Detail.

References from English Translations
(See Mahāsatipaṭṭhāna Translations for links.)

Nyanaponika Thera, "The Heart of Buddhist Meditation" (page 142) Rider & Co. London (1962).
It is that craving which gives rise to fresh rebirth, and, bound up with pleasure and lust, finds ever fresh delight, now here, now there to wit. the Sensual Craving, the Craving for (Eternal) Existence and the Craving for Non-Existence.

Pali Tipitaka
Exposition of the Truth of the Arising of Suffering
"And what, monks, is the Noble Truth of the Arising of Suffering?
It is this craving that occurs again and again and is bound up with pleasure and lust and finds delight now here, now there. That is, the craving for sensual pleasures, the craving for repeated rebirth and the craving for annihilation."

Thanissaro bhikkhu
The craving that makes for further becoming — accompanied by passion & delight, relishing now here & now there — i.e., craving for sensuality, craving for becoming, craving for non-becoming.

Burma Piṭaka Association
The origin of dukkha is the Craving which gives rise to fresh rebirth, and, accompanied by pleasure and passion, finds great delight in this or that existence, namely, Craving for pleasures of the senses,[99] Craving for better existence, and Craving for non-existence.

[99] Kāma-taṇhā is hankering after and becoming attached to pleasures of the senses. Bhava- taṇhā is hankering after and becoming attached to continued existence, either the current sensual existence or a better and higher existence in the rūpa (fine material) or arūpa (non-material) brahmā realms, or becoming attached to the rūpa and arūpa jhānas. Vibhava- taṇhā is hankering after and becoming attached to the idea that there is no kamma for rebirth, and hence no future existence.

U Jotika & U Dhamminda
It is that craving which gives rise to fresh rebirth; and which together with delight and clinging, (accepts, enjoys, and) finds great delight in this or that (existence or sense pleasure that happens to arise). Namely, craving for sense pleasures (kamatanha), craving for (better) existences (bhavatanha), and craving for non-existence (vibhavatanha). note97

note97. The craving for pleasurable sights, sounds, smells, tastes and tactile objects is kamatanha. The craving to be born in any sensual; rupa or arupa worlds, and the attachment to rupa or arupa jhanas, and the craving associated with the belief in an eternal and indestructible Self or Soul are all included in the term bhavatanha. The craving that associated with the wrong view that at death one is annihilated and hence that there is no rebirth or results of good or bad actions is vibhavatanha.

Please continue with The Middle Way

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