ISSN 1076-9005
Volume 26, 2019
The Experience of Dukkha and Domanassa among Puthujjanas
Ashin Sumanacara
Mahidol University
In the Pāli canon, the terms dukkha and domanassa are used with reference to different types and degrees of suffering that must be understood according to context. This article first examines the meaning of puthujjana in the Pāli Nikāyas. It then analyses the contextual meanings of dukkha and domanassa, including a discussion of their types based on a thorough investigation of the Pāli Nikāyas. Finally, it examines the explanation in the Pāli Nikāyas of the arising of dukkha and domanassa, and, in particular, how lust, hatred, delusion and some other negative emotions are considered to cause physical pain and mental pain among puthujjanas.
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ISSN 1076-9005
Volume 22, 2015
The Four Realities True for Noble Ones: A New Approach to the Ariyasaccas
Ven. Pandita (Burma)
University of Kelaniya
Peter Harvey recently argued that the term sacca of ariyasacca should be interpreted as “reality” rather than as “truth,” the common rendition. In this paper, although I basically agree with him, I see quite different implications and come to a wholly new interpretation of the four ariyasaccas.
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ISSN 1076-9005
Volume 20, 2013
Suffering Made Sufferable: Śāntideva, Dzongkaba, and Modern Therapeutic Approaches to Suffering’s Silver Lining
Daniel Cozort
Dickinson College
Suffering’s positive side was elucidated beautifully by the eighth century Mahāyāna poet Śāntideva in his Bodhicāryavatāra. Dzongkaba Losang Drakpa, the founder of what came to be known as the Gelukba (dge lugs pa) order of Tibetan Buddhism, used Śāntideva’s text as his main source in the chapter on patience in his masterwork, Lam rim Chenmo. In this article I attempt to explicate Śāntideva’s thought by way of the commentary of Dzongkaba. I then consider it in the context of what Ariel Glucklich has called “Sacred Pain”—the myriad ways in which religious people have found meaning in pain. I conclude with some observations about ways in which some Buddhist-inspired or -influenced therapeutic movements such as Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and Positive Psychology are helping contemporary people to reconcile themselves to pain or to discover that it may have positive value.
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