What suffering did the Buddha encounter?

Answer 1

First off, The Buddha did not say all life is suffering. He said that life is full of discontentment and unhappiness (translated by some as suffering) because of what we do with our minds. He said that this discontentment comes from desiring things that do not make us happy and because of our egotism.

As proof in today's world.

1) You buy something you really want and for a day or so you are happy. Then

you become unhappy again and want something else. So things do not bring

happiness.

2) Rich people suffer from depression as much if not more than average people.

So Money doesn't bring happiness.

What brings happiness is contentment and refusing to be lead by your ego. Stop comparing yourself to others ($$, position, power, looks). Stop running out and buying the latest gadget to pacify yourself. Be concerned with the welfare of others. Try to make other people's lives easier. Be grateful to everyone since the whole world is connected.

Answer 2

One day, when he began to become curious about the world outside the palace walls. He asked a charioteer to take him out to see what it was like. He was shocked at the sight of an aged man, a sick man and finally a dead man (corpse). The reason for him being so shocked be these three sights was that he had never in his life seen them because from a very young age his father, through the fear that he would become religously minded, he kept him sheltered from such things and only shown him the beautiful and happy things in the world. Aftr seeing these three sights and being told that these three things were natural and would evenually happen to him and his family the way in which they happened to everyone, he saw a four sight - a religous man with nothing else to his name but a begging bowl and the clothes on his back and he looked peaceful. That was when Prince Siddhartha Gautana relieved suffering existed.

The Four Sights

1. A Aged Man
2. A Sick Man
3. A Dead Man (Corpse)
4. A Religous Man

Answer 3

Yes he did. He found that people suffer because of their Desires, Aversions and Ignorance. Some of the logic follows:

Ignorance - Ignorance of how things work and how things are make us suffer. For instance, people like to think that things will stay just like they are. That people won't get old and die, that things won't break, that material items bring happiness, that things should be different, etc. but these are all untrue. Everything changes, and passes away. Quantum Physics even says that atom change and pass away. So living a life in ignorance makes us suffer because we think life should be the way we want it and it isn't.

Desire - Desire makes us suffer because we strive to get things, like fame, fortune, material items, thinking that this will may us happy, complete, loved, adored, etc. but they don't. The rich have the same level of metal illness as the poor. Material goods make us happy for a while till they break or something bigger and better comes along. We really want that better position at work and when we get it we are happy for a while, then it doesn't.

Aversion - Aversion (hate, dislike) makes us suffer because we judge people and events (such as pain) as bad and we try to avoid them. By avoiding them we limit and constrict our lives and contacts. When we are forced to deal with them we complain and moan and act as if the world is ending.

Answer 4

Buddha saw that, while suffering is an integral part of life, it is the consequence of our desires. He saw that this desire, and hence the suffering, could be ended and proposed a path (the Eightfold Path) to address that goal.

Answer 5

Buddha concluded that the basis of all suffering was desire, as expressed particularly through attachment and aversion and that was not necessarily a permanent state.

Answer 6

Suffering and unhappiness are a part of human life. No one can escape sorrow.

Answer 7

Buddha endured the suffering of ignorance and abundance as a Prince, of physical deprivation and dissatisfaction as an ascetic, and of death.