Stress (dukkha)
Alternative translations for dukkha
include suffering, burdensomeness, and pain. However -- despite
the unfortunate connotations it has picked up from programs in
"stress-management" and "stress-reduction" -- the English
word stress, in its basic meaning as the reaction to strain on the body
or mind, has the advantage of covering much the same range as the Pali word dukkha.
It applies both to physical and mental phenomena, ranging from the intense
stress of acute anguish or pain to the innate burdensomeness of even the most
subtle mental or physical fabrications. It also has the advantage of being
universally recognized as something directly experienced in all life, and is at
the same time a useful tool for cutting through the spiritual pride that keeps
people attached to especially refined or sophisticated forms of suffering: once
all suffering, no matter how noble or refined, is recognized as being
nothing more than stress, the mind can abandon the pride that keeps it attached
to that suffering, and so gain release from it. Still, in some of the verses of
the Itivuttaka, stress seems too weak to convey the meaning, so in those
verses I have rendered dukkha as pain, suffering, or suffering
& stress.
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