The Suffering of Change When faced with various types of suffering of suffering, human beings wish to remove or reduce them. While the suffering of suffering is temporarily removed or reduced, the Buddha referred to the change in feeling as the suffering of change. If this change in feeling stops, the suffering of change also disappears.
Due to ignorance, sentient beings regard the suffering of change as happiness. When we are sick, the physical suffering of illness arises continuously and may even intensify without relief. At the same time, there may be various psychological sufferings such as inner tension, fear of death, worry about work, concern for family, and distress over financial matters. When the condition improves, the physical pain of illness is removed or reduced, and the various psychological sufferings are also removed or reduced. Sentient beings crave this change in feeling (the suffering of change) and hope it will continue. However, in reality, this change in feeling cannot continue forever. Therefore, the suffering of change is fleeting. Desire will cause our hearts to burn. When desire intensifies through repetition, the suffering of not getting what one wants will grow. The yin and yang in the body will lose balance, leading to a suboptimal health status where both the body and mind are unwell. The suffering of not getting what one wants can give rise to the suffering of encountering what one dislikes. To temporarily remove or reduce these sufferings caused by greed, anger, and ignorance, driven by karma, we engage in many unwholesome actions such as killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, and lying. These negative actions give rise to the sufferings of birth, aging, illness, and death, and increase the suffering of not getting what one wants and the suffering of encountering what one dislikes. This creates a vicious cycle. From the above, we can see the relationship between the three types of suffering and afflictions. Let’s explain with some examples. We have concluded the explanation of the three types of suffering. Later, we can study how to eliminate greed, anger, and ignorance. We will cover this topic in our next lesson. Since we have realized that the three types of suffering are not worth pursuing, we should aspire to be free from them. The cause of the three types of suffering is afflictions, such as greed, anger, ignorance, doubt, and arrogance. Therefore, next, we will learn how the Buddha taught to eliminate the cause of suffering. Here, we conclude our study on the three types of suffering.