Dukkha (दुःख); Sorrow

What is Dukkha or sorrow? Lets start with understanding the root of the word.

In Sanskrit, Su and dus are prefixes indicating good or bad. The word kha, in later Sanskrit means “sky,” “ether,” or “space,”. Hence Su+kha=Sukha means good or peaceful space, and Du+kha=Dukkha means bad or uncomfortable space. IOW, dukkha (दुःख) or sorrow really implies discomfort, or uneasiness within your being.

Where does this unease come from? We all tend to attribute all our problems and sorrows to the outward world. We will attribute sorrow to relationships, to things, to states within the body. However, the reality is that, this unease fundamentally comes from the longing to be one with the divine self or what we can refer to as God. What does this mean? How does that work?

What has happened is that we have contracted (limited) our divine self by identifying with our body and mind. Once this has happened, we feel very constricted and restricted, so we look to satisfy this longing outwardly, by engaging in relationships, objects, senses and experiences. This is all an effort to feel unconstricted by expanding our experiences.

Sometimes this longing is satisfied temporarily within these relationships, objects or senses. However, the nature of the outward world is that it truly is ever changing and temporary. So eventually we lose the source of temporary satisfaction. What happens next is, depending on the intensity of our attachment to this object, relationship or sense, this loss creates a deeper sense of longing again. However, fundamentally this longing is because we have contracted ourselves and are looking to expand ourselves.

Sorrow is the deep and unsatisfied longing to be one with the divine.