The Buddhist diagnosis that ordinary existence is pervaded by unsatisfactoriness — often flattened, misleadingly, into the single word "suffering."
Dukkha is the starting point of the Buddhist analysis of existence, and it is almost always mistranslated. Rendered flatly as "suffering," it sounds like a gloomy verdict that life is nothing but pain. The term is broader and more precise than that: it names a pervasive unsatisfactoriness running through ordinary experience.
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The idea of a cycle of birth, death, and rebirth — a shared framework across several traditions that nonetheless interpret it differently.
The Buddhist term for liberation — the "blowing out" of the fires of craving — distinct from, though often confused with, moksha.
A term for the innermost self explored in the Upanishads — its nature, and its relation to ultimate reality, are debated across traditions.
The founding teacher of the Buddhist tradition — a figure whose core teachings are well attested while much of the traditional biography is later material.
A major tradition originating in ancient India, spanning many schools and cultures, with a distinctive analysis of self, suffering, and conduct.
A comparative note on how different traditions describe liberation — what it releases, and from what — using related but non-identical concepts.