Why Do We Suffer? A Buddhist Answer

Traditional Buddhist teachings are summarized in thehere is that if you have a misconception about the
Four Noble Truths. The second Noble Truth is the truthnature of things, out of that misconception could come
of the origin of suffering. The classic accounts of thesome sort of desire. Ignorance is really the start of the
Buddha's life said that when he was under the tree ofchain.
his awakening, he understood not just that all hasOut of desire comes birth. You have a process where
suffering, but also that suffering has an origin. The originignorance leads to some kind of desire for an object,
of suffering is explained in traditional Buddhist doctrineout of that desire we try to bring that object into being.
by a causal sequence that is known as theIgnorance is the initial cause that fuels the chain.
Twelve-Fold Chain of Dependent Arising.To understand what Buddhists have in mind when
Suffering come into existence by depending on athey make these series of connections one way to do
bunch of causes. That's what it basically means. Weit would be to imagine some kind of glossy
can go through all the twelve links in the chain, but Iadvertisement. Imagine an advertisement that creates
always found the chain a little bit confusing. It seemsan image for ourselves. This is something fantastic and
historically that it really is a combination of twodesirable. Ask what kinds of illusions it fosters, what
attempts to explain the origin of suffering that havekind of desires is meant to arise and what comes into
been cemented together.being as a result of all of those desires.
It is more valuable to just single out the key links thatMost of those illusions are pretty benign, but they feed
seem to express the view of the world that isa process that eventually lead to the cycle of death
encapsulated in this vision. The first link that is importantand rebirth. The most basic form of ignorance is the
is the link that leads from ignorance to desire. The ideaignorance about the self.