Editing Duḥkha (section)

===Translation===
The literal meaning of ''duḥkha'', as used in a general sense is "suffering" or "painful."{{refn|group=note|{{harvtxt|Harvey|2013|p=30}}: ""suffering" is an appropriate translation only in a general, inexact sense [...] In the passage on the first True Reality, dukkha in "birth is dukkha" is an adjective [...] The best translation here is by the English adjective "painful," which can apply to a range of things."}} Its exact translation depends on the context.{{refn|group=note|Gombrich, ''What the Buddha Thought'', p.10: "there has been a lot of argument over how to translate the word dukkha; and again, the choice of translation must depend heavily on the context.}} Contemporary translators of Buddhist texts use a variety of English words to convey the aspects of ''dukh''. Early Western translators of Buddhist texts (before the 1970s) typically translated the Pali term ''dukkha'' as "suffering." Later translators have emphasized that "suffering" is a too limited translation for the term duḥkha, and have preferred to either leave the term untranslated,{{sfn|Walpola Rahula|2007|loc=Kindle Locations 542-550}} or to clarify that translation with terms such as anxiety, distress, frustration, unease, unsatisfactoriness, not having what one wants, having what one doesn't want, etc.{{sfn|Walpola Rahula|2007|loc=Kindle locations 524-528}}{{sfn|Prebish|1993}}{{sfn|Keown|2003}}{{refn|group=note|name=Translations (contemporary)}} In the sequence "birth is painful," ''dukhka'' may be translated as "painful."{{sfnp|Harvey|2013|p=30}}  When related to [[vedana]], "feeling," ''dukkha'' ("unpleasant," "painful") is the opposite of ''sukkha'' ("pleasure," "pleasant"), yet all feelings are ''dukkha'' in that they are impermanent, conditioned phenomena, which are unsatisfactory, incapable of providing lasting satisfaction.{{CN|date=February 2023}} The term "unsatisfactoriness" then is often used to emphasize the unsatisfactoriness of "life under the influence of afflictions and polluted karma."{{sfn|Dalai Lama|1998|p=38}}{{sfn|Gethin|1998|p=61}}{{sfn|Smith|Novak|2009|loc=Kindle location 2769}}{{sfn|Keown|2000|loc=Kindle Locations 932-934}}{{sfn|Bhikkhu Bodhi|2011|p=6}}{{refn|group=note|Unsatisfactory:
* Analayo (2013), ''Satipaṭṭhāna: The Direct Path to Realization'': "Dukkha is often translated as “suffering”. Suffering, however, represents only one aspect of dukkha, a term whose range of implications is difficult to capture with a single English word [...] In order to catch the various nuances of “dukkha”, the most convenient translation is “unsatisfactoriness”, though it might be best to leave the term untranslated."
* Gombrich, ''How Buddhism Began'': "The first Noble Truth is the single word ''dukkha'', and it is explicated to mean that everything in our experience of life is ultimately unsatisfactory";
:::::* Dalai Lama, Thubten Chodron, ''Approaching the Buddhist Path'', p.279 note 2: "''Duhkha'' (P. ''dukkha'') is often translated as "suffering," but this translation is misleading. Its meaning is more nuanced and refers to all unsatisfactory states and experiences, many of which are not explicitly painful. While the Buddha says that life under the influence of afflictions and polluted karma is unsatisfactory, he does not say that life is suffering."
*  Roderick Bucknell, Martin Stuart-Fox, ''The Twilight Language'', p.161: "Thus ''dukkha'' at the most subtle level appears to refer to a normally unperceived unsatisfactory quality";
* Gombrich, ''What the Buddha Thought'', p.10: "there has been a lot of argument over how to translate the word dukkha; and again, the choice of translation must depend heavily on the context. But what is being expressed is that life as we normally experience it is unsatisfactory."}}