3 TYPES OF SUFFERING B

While there are many subcategories, we are asked to contemplate three basic patterns of suffering in our lives:

1. The suffering of suffering. This is the one we’re all familiar with: the pain of birth, old age, sickness, and death, as the Buddha described it.
2. The suffering of change. When you do get what you want, you can’t hold onto it. Even if things are going great now, it’s just a matter of time. The richest, most successful person in the world will eventually lose it all (see 1).
3. All-pervasive suffering. This is the type of suffering we are most likely not to recognize, yet the most instructive when we do. It’s the general background of anxiety and insecurity that colors even our happiest moments. Deep down, we fear that life doesn’t offer us solid ground and that our very existence is questionable. From a Buddhist point of view, these doubts are well-founded, and exploring them offers us glimpses of wisdom.