So basically the Buddhist word that gets translated to English as suffering means something like “second-order (and higher) effects of pain (and other emotions)”, while the natural meaning of the English word is more like “all effects of pain”.
The question is whether those are two different words in the original language, or it was a bait-and-switch from the very beginning.
I’ve seen dukkha translated as something more like “unsatisfactoriness” which puts a kind of Stoic spin on it. You look at the cards you’ve been dealt, and instead of playing them, you find them inadequate and get upset about it. The Stoics (and the Buddhists, in this interpretation) would recommend that you instead just play the cards you’re dealt. They may not be great cards, but you won’t make them any better by complaining about them. Dunno if this is authentic to Buddhism or is more the result of Westerners trying to find something familiar in Buddhism, though.
So basically the Buddhist word that gets translated to English as suffering means something like “second-order (and higher) effects of pain (and other emotions)”, while the natural meaning of the English word is more like “all effects of pain”.
The question is whether those are two different words in the original language, or it was a bait-and-switch from the very beginning.
I’ve seen dukkha translated as something more like “unsatisfactoriness” which puts a kind of Stoic spin on it. You look at the cards you’ve been dealt, and instead of playing them, you find them inadequate and get upset about it. The Stoics (and the Buddhists, in this interpretation) would recommend that you instead just play the cards you’re dealt. They may not be great cards, but you won’t make them any better by complaining about them. Dunno if this is authentic to Buddhism or is more the result of Westerners trying to find something familiar in Buddhism, though.