Question

When I have some minor Dukkha, I see the inclination to get more desperate about the Dukkha in the world, like I feel it is myself. Is there a connection?

Answer

So the person has some minor Dukkha and then they feel more desperate about the Dukkha in the world. "Like it is myself." It's hard to say exactly what the connection may be. It's not black and white here, but it may be that the person, all of the sudden, identifies more with the Dukkha of the world because they have some Dukkha at that moment. So when life's nice, when life's happy, when everything is going well, who cares about Dukkha? It's too good. So it is true that when we're experiencing Dukkha, whether it is minor or even major, we often start to reflect more, as I was just talking about in the answer to the previous question about Samvega, that Dukkha is really part of the rules of this world, part of the game we're playing here.

So if the thoughts do connect in that way, then that would be fine; that would be good. At times when you don't have Dukkha, though, we still want to get that connection in there. We still want to identify with the Dukkha of the world, because that's what's going to stimulate us. It all goes in a circle: the more we understand Dukkha outside and inside, the more we have Compassion for it and don't want it anymore, then the more we're going to work towards ending it. So it's all related there.

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