Thoughts on Dukkha

The other day I did some reading around Buddhism and some of the central tenets of the lifestyle. Most importantly, I wanted to understand the underlying principles that shape the rest of the various types of practice. I find that religions and practice rarely hit home 100% for me, however, the adopting the underlying in my own way can be very useful.

As I understand it, 'Dukkha' is the constant dissatisfaction that envelops the human race throughout life. More specifically, it is a dissatisfaction with the constant impermanence of things.

The more that I thought about this observation, the more that it rang true. We are always striving for 'more'. Just as soon as we have achieved a momentous goal, we're left thinking: “What next?”

So pervasive is this outlook on things that we don't even realise that we're looking at things through this lense. In fact, the very first time that I chatted with my partner about how interesting this was she replied words to the effect of “isn't it awful that people struggle with impermanence and end up sad?”

What an excellent insight into the very nature of it we were presented with.