What does dispassion and dukkha mean?

[sundara]

What does dispassion and dukkha mean, in Buddhism?

[mikenz66]

http://what-buddha-said.net/library/Bud ... ir%C4%81ga

Virāga: 'disillusion' or 'fading away', detachment; absence of lust, dispassionateness. Appears frequently together with nirodha 'cessation' 1 as a name for Nibbāna, 2 in the contemplations a forming the 4th tetrad in the exercises in awareness or mindfulness of breathing see: ānāpānasati 14, b of the 18 principal insights No. 5; see: vipassanā

According to Com., it may mean 1 the momentary destruction of phenomena, or 2 the ultimate 'fading away', i.e. Nibbāna. In the aforementioned two contemplations, it means the understanding of both, and the path attained by such understanding.

http://what-buddha-said.net/library/Bud ... htm#dukkha

Dukkha: 1 'pain', painful feeling, which may be bodily and mental see: vedanā

2 'Suffering', 'ill'. As the first of the Four Noble Truths see: sacca and the second of the three characteristics of existence see: ti-lakkhana the term dukkha is not limited to painful experience as under 1, but refers to the unsatisfactory nature and the general insecurity of all conditioned phenomena which, on account of their impermanence, are all liable to suffering, and this includes also pleasurable experience. Hence 'unsatisfactoriness' or 'liability to suffering' would be more adequate renderings, if not for stylistic reasons. Hence the first truth does not deny the existence of pleasurable experience, as is sometimes wrongly assumed. This is illustrated by the following texts:

;Seeking satisfaction in the world, Bhikkhus, I had pursued my way. That satisfaction in the world I found. In so far as satisfaction existed in the world, I have well perceived it by understanding. Seeking for misery in the world, Bhikkhus, I had pursued my way. That misery in the world I found. In so far as misery existed in the world, I have well perceived it by understanding. Seeking for the escape from the world, Bhikkhus, I had pursued my way. That escape from the world I found. In so far as an escape from the world existed, I have well perceived it by understanding; A. 111, 101.

;If there were no satisfaction to be found in the world, beings would not be attached to the world. If there were no misery to be found in the world, beings would not be repelled by the world. If there were no escape from the world, beings could not escape therefrom; A. 111, 102.

See dukkhatā For texts on the Truth of Suffering, see W. of B. and 'path'.

See The Three Basic Facts of Existence, II. Suffering WHEEL 191/193.

Mike

[retrofuturist]

Bang-bang.... nice work Mike.

Metta,
Retro.

[mikenz66]

Bang-bang.... nice work Mike.

I think thanks go to Venerable Nyanatiloka, and possibly to the friendly protectors of the British Empire at Central Internment Camp, Dehra-Dun, India, where he completed the first edition in 1946. (See the Preface.) Despite having ordained in 1903 he must have been still considered a threat fifty years later (he was German)!

You can read more about him here:
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/index.html#n
but be careful not to mix him up with Nyanaponika (another German), Ñanamoli (English), and the other foreign "N" monks who resided in Sri Lanka, such as Ñāṇavīra (who went to Sri Lanka with Ñanamoli).

Mike

[Sanghamitta]

The translation of the Anguttara Nikaya reminded me of a lovely free interpretation by Luang Por Sumedho in which he said " If this world were any less a source of suffering we would have no incentive to understand the source of that suffering. If were any more a source of suffering we would be too crushed to raise the effort. As it is , its just right ."

Incidentally " dispassion" seems to me as a translation to be very pastel shaded.

[rowyourboat]

dispassion-viraga is a state of mind reached in the progress of vipassana. It forms one of the mind states which progressed from seeing the three characteristics (anicca,dukkha, anatta)--> revulsion/disenchantment (nibbida)-->dispassion (viraga)-->cessation (nirodha)-->vimutti (release). Even though the purifications become popular as a way of expressing progress in the path after writing of the visuddhimagga, this is the most common method it is expressed in the suttas.