We all know suffering. We have met it, lived with it, and done our best to get rid of it. In this issue of Inquiring Mind—second in a series focusing on the “three characteristics” of impermanence (anicca), suffering (dukkha) and nonself (anatta)—we investigate this core problem of existence. We begin with the Buddha’s words—quotations about suffering taken from various books of the Pali Canon and selected for us by Thanissaro Bhikkhu, abbot of Metta Forest Monastery. Tulku Thondup Rinpoche offers us a Tibetan Buddhist point of view on dukkha, along with practices for healing and transforming emotional suffering. Thanissaro Bhikkhu follows with a traditional Theravadan perspective, contrasting the two primary ways in which the Buddha discusses dukkha: in the Four Noble Truths and the three characteristics. Bringing things back to the personal, Susan Moon looks back on her struggle with depression; Ed Brown recounts a cooking catastrophe; and Tara Bennett-Goleman describes an unexpected lesson on suffering, taken from her new book, Emotional Alchemy.* Tara Brach examines a contemporary affliction experienced by many of us—the “trance of unworthiness.”

To uncover the institutional sources of dukkha, we invited “engaged Buddhist” monk Santikaro Bhikkhu and Buddhist Peace Fellowship director Alan Senauke and associate director Diana Winston to join us in a roundtable discussion on the suffering caused by the systems we create in society. Next, Mushim Ikeda-Nash explores how the telling of our stories can help heal the racial divides that separate us from one another. On the practice page, Zen teacher Maylie Scott offers practical advice on responding to the suffering we encounter every day when we read the paper or watch the TV news.

Finally, our poetry section features the fun rhymes of sangha member Gary Turchin, a “Recipe for Unhappiness” by Fred Moramarco and more of cover-artist Marianne Kolb’s work.

*A few things were left out of the archive for this issue…

For budgetary reasons, we are archiving Inquiring Mind’s original articles, interviews and poetry—but for the most part we are not including pieces that were adapted or excerpted from books.

That’s why the following sidebars, poems and articles are NOT here in the archive:

“The Twelve Stages of Healing Meditation” and “Guided Meditation: Each Cell Is Filled with Healing Energies” by Tulku Thondup Rinpoche, excerpted from Boundless Healing by (Shambhala Publications, Inc. 2000)

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“Finding Sorrow” and “Listening to Your Inner Critic” by Andrew Boyd, excerpted from Daily Afflictions: The Agony of Being Connected to Everything in the Universe (W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2002) 

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“Nothing Lasts”, “Poem with Two Endings”, “A Carbon-based Life Form” and “Habit,” by Jane Hirshfield, from Given Sugar, Given Salt (Harper-Collins Publishers, Inc., 2001)

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“An Unexpected Lesson on Suffering” by Tara Bennett-Goleman, excerpted from Emotional Alchemy: How the Mind Can Heal the Heart (Harmony Books, 2001)

If you wish that these excerpts were in the archive, let us know (and, perhaps, consider making a donation to help us continue growing and expanding the archive).