(abstr. noun fr. dukkha): 'the state of suffering', painfulness, unpleasantness, the unsatisfactoriness of existence. "There are three kinds of suffering:
(1) suffering as pain (dukkha-dukkhatā),
(2) the suffering inherent in the formations (sankhāra-dukkhatā),
(3) the suffering in change (viparināma-dukkhatā)" (S. XLV, 165; D. 33).
(1) is the bodily or mental feeling of pain as actually felt.
(2) refers to the oppressive nature of all formations of existence (i.e. all conditioned phenomena), due to their continual arising and passing away; this includes also experiences associated with neutral feeling.
(3) refers to bodily and mental pleasant feelings, "because they are the cause for the arising of pain when they change" (Vis.M. XIV, 34f).