Why do people suffer?

[Vajraprotector]

Nagarjuna said in his Letter to a Friend:

Actions born from ignorance, anger and attachment are non-virtue,
From that all the sufferings of the all the evil transmigratory beings arise.
Actions born from non-ignorance, non-anger and non-attachment are virtue,
From that all the happy transmigrators beings arise.

If we study the causes of samsara and the causes of liberation and learn to abandon ignorance, anger and attachment, then we can actualise the path to liberation, which is done through the higher training of morality, the higher training of concentration and the higher training of wisdom. From this one can achieve liberation, the total cessation of all the oceans of samsaric suffering and the causes – karma and delusion.

I feel there is nothing more profound than the teachings of Lamrim. For example, suffering is explained in relations to the different scopes.

The path shared with persons of the lower scope motivation (striving for a rebirth in the upper realms), it was taught:
-    the reality that this life will end and that you will die
-   the suffering in a rebirth in the lower realms (a rebirth as hell being, hungry ghost or animal, which you want to avoid)
 Hence the methods for them is to take refuge in the three Jewels: Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, and adjust their behaviour of body, speech and mind according to the law of cause and effect/ karma. That will lead them to a favourable rebirth within cyclic existence in the human-, demigod-, or god realm.
 
The path shared with persons who have of the middling scope motivation (striving for liberation of cyclic existence)
-   The truth of suffering (in cyclic existence in general, including the favourable rebirths)
-    The truth of the causes of suffering (the afflictive emotions, especially ignorance)
-   The truth of cessation (there is a state that is free of suffering and its origins)
-   The truth of paths (the way to attain this state free of suffering and its causes by practising ethics, concentration and wisdom)

[biggyboy]

1.   Time.
Time is short. It seemed more so now than before. Each day, month and year passes by so quickly. Before we know it we have reached the end of our life. We are fully aware of how fast time is passing us by and yet we are not doing much about it. There are so much distractions to take us away from doing things that more meaningful and useful services to benefit others. Everything is centered around self.

2.   Enjoyments.
Too much time is spent in the pursuit of enjoyment at the expense of all else.  Due to technological advancement, we are able to do things that are not possible in the past. We do things that are beyond what we are ready for and sometimes too much of such numbs our senses are we no longer live in the real world.

3.   Living beings.
Sometimes we wonder if living beings are really living or not. Take the family as an example. Dinner with the family round the dinner table is unlike in the past where there is lively conversation, exchanging ideas, father teaching children about moral values etc. Nowadays, dinner is so quiet, no conversation, every one is busy tapping away at their cell phone check for messages or logging on to the face book to check what the friends are doing. Exchanging sms has taken the place of face to face conversation. Even the telephone is seldom used.

4.   View.
The view these days is very much centered around the word “ I “  and is always up and not down.  View is always on material things and what my neighbor has. Spiritual views are fading.

5.   Life span.
Modern sciences and medical advancement has helped to combat diseases and prolong human life span. It is an irony that despite all these advancement to prolong life span there are groups of people, in the name of their religion would kill and maimed human beings, cutting short their life span prematurely. Because our lives are so centered on material things, our mind and the thinking process is so clouded that it often is difficult to see what is right or wrong. People take their own life by committing suicide once certain expectation is not met. This has become a normal occurrence and a worrying trend.

[brian]

This is my point of view, i am not saying all the qualities that you all have put in is wrong, how can i make such comments to say what Buddha said was wrong?

The very reason why people suffer is because i believe is that rising from the deluded and ignorant mind. Of living in a pleasure which leads to no where but eventual sufferings. The most suffering for me does not come from the pain of our body harm, but the pain generated from one person do not even know he is suffering when he is living in the world of suffering. that is the main suffering for me.

[Jessie Fong]

We suffer in many ways in different degrees of intensity, duration and frequency :

- physical : being hurt due to a fall, accident
- mental : depression
- financial : business failure

We suffer because of our own self.  We created the causes before and now we are suffering.  So suffering is the effect of our actions.

[rossoneri]

First of all, when the mind is bound by the three poisonous minds,(anger, attachment & ignorance) it is not a healthy mind, it is a sick mind. Then, with these three poisonous minds, we produce unrighteous actions, unrighteousness. Another way of saying this, is that we create negative actions with our speech, body and mind. By creating the wrong actions, with the wrong method, the result or the effect that we receive is always suffering. There is always a problem and we don’t receive happiness, even if we have the expectation that we will gain happiness from that action. For instance, a person who eats honey mixed with poison. This ignorant person does not know it is poisonous honey, he just believes that it is pure honey because it tastes sweet, and he keeps on taking it. What is the result? The result the person receives is that his body becomes more and more uncomfortable, and more and more pain arises.

It is just like this with any of the poisonous minds of anger, attachment or ignorance. Whatever action we create with speech, body and mind is a mistake or a wrong action, just like a person who eats poisonous honey. The person thinks he is enjoying it, that it really is pure honey, not poisonous. He thinks that nothing will happen by eating it, that he will only enjoy it. So, our normal minds are like this example.

Just as the actions of body, speech and mind produced by the three poisonous minds are wrong, are negative action, so, the result is always in the nature of suffering. These actions don’t make us happy. The physical and mental sufferings and unhappiness that we have been experiencing in this life, since we were born until now, all these life problems are the result of the wrong actions done with the three poisonous minds. So, these three poisonous minds are the cause of all our suffering and unhappiness.

Therefore, without depending on the method, without depending on Dharma, and instead depending on external things, we can’t destroy the cause of our suffering, the three poisonous minds. Nothing can destroy this, without depending on Dharma. 

[RedLantern]

Suffering is the most hardest issue to face for many people,particularly those who generally believe in a kind and loving God. We will suffer at the end whether rich or poor.
Reincarnation explains why good people suffer.It explains the inequalities of life but also provides hope.The ability to harm others or ourselves has been ingrained in us all.People suffer for a variety of reasons but I believe we are all self destructive in nature and tend to choose something that we know will cause to our long term suffering and perhaps the longterm suffering  of another,usually to the ones we love the most and sometimes to our fellow human beings.
Because we are human,we choose the negative road or that journey into thoughtlessness.Whatever choices we made in our lives will in the end provide for us a negative future or positive one.We can choose to teach our children to take responsibility for their actions
We suffer not for anything but ourselves,and karma is the main force that determined one's circumstances.