Dukkha – The Unsatisfactory Nature of Sense Experience
In this eight-week course on Dukkha, we will examine the second of three underlying truths that characterize all experience. We will use a stable and continuous present-moment awareness to better investigate the unsatisfactory, uncertain, and ungovernable nature of experience. This underlying nature may be unpleasant, but it doesn’t have to be a personal problem. The Buddha taught that the mind can be trained to see the nature of dukkha clearly in a way that uproots the habits of resistance and/or denial. With practice, it is possible to meet unsatisfactoriness with equanimity, thus opening the door to insight and freedom.
Resources
Course Meditations and Talks:
Study Materials:
- Suffering should be Welcomed by Ahjahn Sumed
- Deep Dukkha: Getting Down in the Trenches with the First Noble Truth, by Toni Bernhard
- Pain Without Suffering, Ezra Bayda, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Darlene Cohen, and Gavin Harrison explain how to use Buddhist practice to manage physical pain
- The Challenge of Pain, by Bhikkhu Analayo
- Built-in Buddha, by Bhikkhu Bodhi on the stern but eloquent teachings of chronic pain
- Giving Pain the Slip, by Andrew Olendzki
- Dukkha, by Ajahn Thanissaro
- SN 38.14 Dukkha Sutta, Stress translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
- Understanding Dukkha, by Ajahn Chah
- The Wonder of Presence, by Toni Packer, Chapter 15 – What is it that Dies?
- Brother Martin was a Blues Man, A Boston Review Book Talk with Cornel West
- The Three Basic Facts of Existence II: Suffering (Dukkha) Collected Essays
- Sallatha Sutta: The Arrow (The Dart), translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
- Vedana, Bhikkhu Analayo Interview Insight Journal
- Week 7 and 8 Reflections, Mark Nunberg with text from Toni Bernhard
Additional Audio/Video:
- Joseph Goldstein – Insight Hour – Ep. 75 – Turning the Wheel of the Dharma: Understanding Dukkha
- Dukkha dukkha, Additional Dharma talks on how to relate wisely to pain
