Under the 4 Noble Truths which The Buddha taught/expounded/proclaimed to the world, the hardest for people to accept is the 1st Truth : There is Suffering.
Honestly, if you think about it, The Buddha taught/say it as it is : There is suffering.
We are the ones who can't accept.
And the reason we can't accept, or find it hard to accept is because we're in denial - deluding ourselves, and refusing to accept Truth cos' we crave for the pleasant, don't want the unpleasant.
There is a reason The Buddha puts it as the 1st Truth; and the reason is because it's True.
He wants us to face up to the Truth - Reality, just as He had.
Really see it in our face; face up to it. See It. Acknowledge it.
Cos' without acknowledging, we can't do anything about it.
Only when we admit/acknowledge, can we then do something about it.
I remember when I was a little girl, my sister who's still in school wants to work; yet the working people say they rather study.
I also recall a school teacher told us once that studying is easy cos' we only have exams and homework to do; working is much harder.
That was when I was young.
Fast forward to present day : One night when I was walking home after class, I overheard a conversation by 3 teenage girls at a traffic junction. One was heard telling the other 2 that she can't wait to be 21 years old, then she can get married and do 'all the things'.
Whatever 'the things' mean.
Yet, I know of married people who wants out.
It's so strange : Single people wants to be married, married people wants to be single; old wants to be young, while young wants to be old.
All that I know is : Married - you suffer. Single - you suffer. Young suffer. Old suffer. Study suffer. Work suffer. Diarrhoea suffer. Constipation suffer.
Everything is Suffering !
Simply because, "There is Suffering."
Just as The Buddha said.
This is a Truth (Medicine) we all have to swallow no matter how bitter.
And as Ajahn Mun said, "One who is delivered from suffering must be able to face whatever degree of this Noble Truth (ie. There is Suffering) that comes to him."
Some people feel that repositioning it will make it better.
Really? Honestly?
Perhaps.
Perhaps repositioning it may help to make it easier to swallow,
But either way, we still have to swallow, Right?
Whichever position you put it, it's still a Truth we all have to face at the end of the day.
Ultimately, Sooner or later.
For me, since I have the 'illness' (of suffering), I rather swallow it the hard way.
And sooner.
So long as it treats my 'disease'.
Truth, to me, is Truth.
Whichever position you put it, it's still the Truth -
There is suffering.
"Many people have charged Buddhism with being pessimistic because the 4 Truths start out with Stress & Suffering,
But this charge misses the fact the 1st Truth is part of a strategy of diagnosis and therapy focusing on the basic problem in life so as to offer a solution to it."
- Thanissaro Bhikkhu
"Truth does not depend on beliefs or opinions of any kind.
It is true according to immutable natural principles."
- Ajahn Maha Boowa Nanasampanno
"You want to know the Truth?
But can you accept the Truth?"
"You can run, but you can't hide.
Truth is Truth."
"Suffering is a disease and therefore can be cured completely."
- The Buddha
"Only through suffering can you then know suffering."
- Ajahn Chah
"Amidst the harshness, We learn."
"Where is the world?
The world is situated on suffering."
- The Buddha
"Wherever there is dukkha (suffering), there also is manifestation of kamma,
And those who are free of dukkha are also free of kamma.
That is, The Buddha and the Arahants."
- Ajahn Maha Boowa Nanasampanno
