NO SUFFERING ALLOWED, PLEASE (PDF-1675)

The first of the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism is “The Truth of Suffering," and I am often asked: "Where is the suffering? I am not really suffering? Life is good!" It is as though they are suggesting that Buddhism is a downer and that Buddhists believe we are supposed to be suffering. Daniel Brown, Clinical Professor of Psychology at the Harvard Medical School, who is also a skilled translator of Tibetan (and a Buddhist practitioner with a knowledge of Sanskrit) states that "suffering" is not a good translation of what the original Sanskrit word "dukkha" means as used in the First Noble Truth.