Dukkha is the first of the four noble truths of Buddhism. The word means suffering, but justto state suffering as the entirety of the first noble truth, is not enough because the expression ofdukkha is the first truth that is needed for salvation. Moreover, dukkha is the conclusion of alogical chain of ideas that explains the life and death cycle of mankind. Before a personrecognizes the truth of dukkha, he lives in a space of ignorance and with ignorance he seeks thefulfillment of his desires, yet with every demand met, he soon finds dissatisfaction. The longer aperson lives the more apparent the truth of demise. With birth comes pain; with living comespain and suffering. In life there is despair, confusion and grief. In just one day a man experienceshunger and failure and sickness and at every moment that man knows that no matter howsuccessful, or rich, or famous, or healthy he is; he will die. There is nothing externally that issafe because everything is temporal; even we are temporal. The knowledge of this truth is thefirst part of the Buddhist salvation. Knowing that all is futile and there is nothing externally thatcan release us from the truth is the acceptance of dukkha. Hidden in the first noble truth is theidea of dependence. The human is completely dependent on all that is around him and all that isnot in his control. Even death brings a new cycle of rebirth, but it is not really new because there-birth gathers all of the dependent conditioning activities of the last life cycle. The truth ofdukkha has to be an absolute. It is foundational for salvation because it is release fromignorance. In addition, dukkha is unshakable and constant. Though it be the truth in the negative,it is the only safe harbor that one can cling. The second noble truth is the answer to the first noble truth. That is, what is the root cause ofdukkha? In fact, to leave man with dukkha alone there is no salvation. Gautama concluded t...
