Felt And Reckoned : Twofold Dukkha In Early Buddhism

Abstract

The teaching of the Buddha presented in the Pāli discourses refers to a twofold suffering : felt suffering and reckoned suffering. Because the latter type of suffering identifies even the pleasant feelings and the neutral feelings to be suffering in the sense of their impermanent nature, it is the more profound and hence more difficult suffering type that requires the Buddha’s teaching itself to understand it. When taken in the sense of reckoned suffering, there is an all-pervasive character of suffering in the whole existence. This has led scholarly studies either voluntarily or involuntarily to concoct a view that the outlook of the Buddha’s teaching of suffering is pessimistic. This article attempts to unravel reckoned suffering and its soteriological significance to point out that the Buddha’s teaching of suffering is purposeful, and has the aim of understanding suffering fully to end suffering fully. By analysing important doctrinal quotes from the early Buddhist discourses, this article points out that the Buddha teaches not only suffering but also its cessation, not only felt suffering but also reckoned suffering, and hence the attribution of a pessimistic character to the Buddha’s teaching of suffering cannot be justified.