Reply To: Anicca, Dukkha, Anatta in relation to Dhamma and Various Types of Sankhara

#32625
Lal
Keymaster

The folowing post is from TripleGemStudent:

Key words Lal always says “future suffering” and “suffering in the rebirth process”. It sounds so simple, but it really has deep meanings, not easy to understand on a deep level at all . . .

Lal says:

“Craving for sense pleasures leads to future suffering.”

Seeing from the sankhara perspective, we do abhisankhara to chase these kama assada’s and we end up with jati’s (we’ll use a body for this example). In return, we end up having to do more sankhara to manage our bodies and if we chase kama assada’s while managing our body, we end up doing more abhisankhara. It’s like . . . abhisankhara —> sankhara —-> abhisankhara —–> sankhara . . . It’s like a vicious cycle -_-;;

After my last post, there was something that I realized, I apologize if some of you already know this or seem so simple. I thought I would share anyways because I didn’t realize it or were able to see it this way.

I believe that all sankhara is suffering because there’s always a mental/physical exertion/strain component to it. Living and learning/practicing the Buddha Dhamma, we’ll always need to do some form of sankhara. For instance, we need food, be able to breath, mental energy, etc . . . What I didn’t realize was that NOT being able to do sankhara to manage oneself when one has a body is dukkha as well !! It’s like I’m in dukkha either way. . .

Of course having attained Nibbana and not having to do any sankhara’s in the first place is the most ideal . . . But that’s not the case for all of us, since we’re all here right now . . .

Imagine for us not being able to do/carry out the necessary sankhara’s to learn/practice the Buddha Dhamma, that would be the greatest suffering. At anytime unexpected situations like illness, body pains, mundane affairs can interfere with our ability to learn/practice the Buddha Dhamma or even our ability to do the necessary sankhara’s to live a comfortable life. I have to do sankhara to live, learn/practice Buddha Dhamma, but if I can’t do the necessary sankhara’s to manage myself, learn/practice the Buddha Dhamma, I suffer too!!

Sabbe sankhara dukkha . . . Yup sounds about right . . .

I think I might have realized something as well . . . Anyone please feel free to share your thoughts/opinions… To me it seems like:

Sabbe sankhara annica
Sabbe sankhara dukkha
Sabbe dhamma anatta

and

Taṃ kiṃ maññatha, bhikkhave, rūpaṃ niccaṃ vā aniccaṃ vā”ti?

“Aniccaṃ, Bhante.”
“Yaṃ panāniccaṃ dukkhaṃ vā taṃ sukhaṃ vā”ti?

“Dukkhaṃ, Bhante.”

“Yaṃ panāniccaṃ dukkhaṃ vipari­ṇāma­dhammaṃ, kallaṃ nu taṃ samanupassituṃ: ‘etaṃ mama, esohamasmi, eso me attā’”ti?

Is the same, but worded differently? If it’s the same, then would it be appropriate for me to substitute the word “sankhara” for rupa, vedana, sanna, vinnana? Like:

Sabbe rupa anicca
Sabbe rupa dukkha
Sabbe dhamma anatta

etc . . .

I already know/see/understand that the panca upadanakhhanda CAUSES suffering, but I have been contemplating on to see if the pancakkhanda IS (not cause :)) suffering. I think I might have my answer and be able to give the reasons for my answer. But I’ll save that for another post.