(abstr. noun fr. dukkha): 'the state of suffering', painfulness, unpleasantness, the unsatisfactoriness of existence. "There are three kinds of suffering:

• (1) suffering as pain (dukkha-dukkhatā),

• (2) the suffering inherent in the constructions (sankhāra-dukkhatā),

• (3) the suffering in change (viparināma-dukkhatā)" (S. XLV, 165; D. 33).

• (1) is the bodily or mental feeling of pain as actually felt.

• (2) refers to the oppressive nature of all constructions of existence (i.e. all conditioned phenomena), due to their continual arising and passing away; this includes also experiences associated with neutral feeling.

• (3) refers to bodily and mental pleasant feelings, "because they are the cause for the arising of pain when they change" (Vis.M. XIV, 34f).