Question

Can we ever be free from physical Dukkha?

Answer

According to Buddhism, almost every single person will never be free from physical Dukkha, and that included the Buddha who got sick and injured during his life after he became fully enlightened. But I say almost, because there is one little story in the scriptures of a man who lived to be, I think, 160 years old, at the time when - if you can appreciate it - many people lived to be 120 (they had longer life spans in those days). But one particular fellow is recorded to have lived to be 160, he was another enlightened disciple of the Buddha, and apparently he never had any single physical Dukkha in his entire life. The reason was that he had been a doctor in 500 past lives.

As he had helped so many other people with their physical Dukkha, for that last life, his good Kamma fruited in him being free of illness for his entire life. People who have less physical pain, longer lives, and are healthy until the end, are very rare people. It is a rare person who lives to be over 90 and is still healthy enough to stay in their own home, have mental clarity, etc.. The reason for that, according to Buddhism, is that they gave medicine that enabled people to be healthy in previous times. So, if you would like to live long in your next life, give lots of medicine, be a doctor, whatever, but if you would like to just end your mental Dukkha, which is much more important, then that's what our practice is for. If you are caught up too much in wanting a perfect physical body then you can go a bit off-track.

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.