Question

Unsatisfactoriness is the usual way to think of Dukkha, but what is the closest English translation for it?

Answer

It is very, very long. Birth, aging, disease, death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, despair, being separated from what we like, having to be with what we do not like, not getting what we want. Anything that is unsatisfactory is the meaning of Dukkha. We can't really define it in one word, this is why there is such a long definition of it. I have just given you some of it. So that is why we use the word "unsatisfactoriness," because it helps to cover the whole range of this. It used to be translated as "suffering" but that is rather heavy in English. So if you want to think of the definition of Dukkha you can have the whole definition I gave you. This is actually how the Buddha in the scriptures defines it, birth, aging, disease, death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, despair, being separated from what we like, having to be with what we do not like, not getting what we want. Unsatisfactoriness.

Our apologies if there are any errors in the above text. If anything seems to be wrong or confusing in any way, please feel free to contact the teachers for further clarification.