“What we do naturally is we cling, we grasp, we hold on to. We are not functioning freely, not free, because we’re stuck. Buddha observed this tendency and gave it a name. He said when the mind is stuck, you’re in dukkha (usually translated from the Sanskrit as suffering). Dukkha literally means a wheel whose hub doesn’t move. So what kind of a wheel do you have? A useless, dysfunctional wheel. What good is a wheel if it doesn’t move?
What Buddha discovered and taught was to free up the wheel. He called it sukkha, a liberated wheel, a freed-up wheel. That means liberation, nirvana.” ~ Zen Master Dennis Genpo Merzel from Big Mind · Big Heart
Dukkha. It’s the Sanskrit word Buddha uses in the first of the 4 Noble Truths: “Life is dukkha.” As Genpo tells us, the word is usually translated as “suffering” but literally means a wheel whose hub doesn’t move — a wheel that’s stuck!
We’re on a roll imagining stuff in this Note, so imagine that: a wheel whose hub doesn’t move! It’s *totally* stuck. THAT is what the Buddha used to describe suffering.
Don’t want to suffer? Sweet. Let your wheel move. Experience sukkha. Flow with life. Have the spaciousness to hold multiple perspectives. Live from Big Mind. :)
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