Question

Does all Dukkha come from ignorance, craving and unwise reactions? Or are there more causes? Can you explain more about the causes of Dukkha?

Answer

There are different types of Dukkha in the sense that there is Dukkha that we can avoid, and there is Dukkha that we can't avoid. The mental Dukkha that we create in our reaction, all that we can avoid by developing more wisdom, by developing more unselfish emotions, we can avoid the unwise reactions which give us Dukkha.

As to other types of Dukkha that we can't avoid, to a certain extent you could say that it is already written in our Kammic background. Say, if you are supposed to die tonight, you will, you can't avoid that. If you are going to become a quadriplegic like Christopher Reeves 10 years ago, you will, you can't avoid that, it is already there. That sort of Dukkha cannot be avoided because the forces that conditioned for it are so strong, as Buddhism says, from past lives.

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.