
                        OUR REACTIONS TO DUKKHA

                                   by
                          Dr. Elizabeth Ashby

 
                          Bodhi Leaves No. B 26

                 Reprinted from //Sangha//, July 1959.


           Copyright 1965, 1995 Buddhist Publication Society


                      BUDDHIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY
                      KANDY              SRI LANKA

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                         DharmaNet Edition 1995

                      Transcription: Eileen Santer
                      Proofreading: Jane Yudelman
                        Formatting: John Bullitt

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        "Now this, monks, is the Noble Truth about Ill.  Birth is Ill,
         Aging is Ill, Sickness is Ill, Death is Ill, likewise Sorrow
         and Grief, Woe, Lamentation and Despair.  To be conjoined with
         things we dislike, to be separated from things which we
         like -- that also is Ill.  Not to get what one wants, that also
         is Ill, In a word, this Body, this fivefold mass which is based
         on grasping, that is Ill."
 
                        -- Samy. Nik. V,
 

 Here, bleak and uncompromising, is the First Noble Truth.  To
 understand it "according to reality" is the hard-won privilege of the
 Stream Winner, the result of earnest contemplation.  But it seems
 possible that we can condition our minds intellectually in such a way
 that, when the right time comes, the Truth will reveal itself.  The
 more we know about Ill the more clearly shall we see the unsatisfactory
 state of "being" in which we find ourselves, and the "dry method" of
 approach will perhaps enable us to face up to Ill in all its myriad
 manifestations.
 
 There is no English word that will render all the meanings of the Pali
 //dukkha//.  "Ill" serves the purpose pretty well, so to a certain
 extent do the terms "suffering" and "anguish."  There remains a deeper,
 more general meaning, given by Evola as "a state of agitation, of
 restlessness or commotion rather than suffering...it is the antithesis
 of unshakable calm."
 
 There are three different angles from which we can consider the way
 that //dukkha// impinges on the senses.
 

 1.  //Generalized dukkha//.  The mass suffering due to war, famine and
 pestilence that overwhelms large groups of humanity at the same time,
 and the less appreciated concealed dukkha, common to all, dependent on
 our underlying restlessness and discontent -- the rubs and frustrations
 of everyday life, and the moods and emotions that interfere with the
 inner life, which, for want to a better word, we call "spiritual."  As
 St. Paul put it:  "We know that the whole creation groaneth and
 travaileth together in pain until now."
 
 2.  //Adventitious dukkha//.  By this is meant dukkha that comes under
 our immediate observation, but which does not primarily involve
 ourselves; street accidents, the sick neighbor, the live thrush caught
 in a strawberry net.
 
 3.  //Dukkha that is Private and Personal//.  This is the Ill that
 affects each and all of us according to our kamma, and as such it is of
 the first importance to our own poor little egos.  It will be dealt
 with more fully later on, but first let us consider some of the
 reactions that are evoked by dukkha in general.
 

 1.  "//Blinkers//".  Many people find the thought of suffering very
 unpleasant, and they try to shut it out as far as possible. "I'm so
 sensitive I can't //bear// to hear about it," or, more callously, "It's
 not my funeral."  Those who are "born lucky," or in fortunate
 circumstances are prone to wear blinkers.  These, when they first
 contact Buddhism, are repelled by the idea that life is fundamentally
 unsatisfactory; they think of their pleasures past, present and future,
 and ignore the minor frustrations of everyday life. An extension of the
 "blinkers" is that of the "rose-colored spectacles," the wearers of
 which think that "all is for the best in the best of all possible
 worlds."  Voltaire's "Candide" is a bitter satire founded on this
 theme.
 
 2.  //Blind Acceptance//.  This is characteristic of animals and some
 primitive races which accept the miseries of an uncomfortable
 situation, or the hazards of existence, because such things are part
 and parcel of their ordinary life.
 
 3.  //Prayer//.  The reaction of the "faithful" is to look for
 supernatural aid.  This, performed in a somewhat perfunctory fashion,
 may be a day set apart for nation-wide prayer in the advent of some
 calamity, or the prayers of an individual in distress.  From the
 Buddhist standpoint this reaction is useless if there be no God, and a
 gross impertinence if there is one.  Psychologically the individual may
 feel comforted by the thought that he has shifted his responsibility on
 to a higher power.
 
 4.  //Lamentation//.  This is very usual when a valued treasure has
 been lost, or in the case of bereavement ("Where are you, little only
 son? where are you, little only son?" Majjh. Nik.87).  A frequent form
 of lamentation in the West is "Why should this happen to ME?"  When
 shouldn't it?  Have we never heard of Kamma?
 
 5.  //Grumbling//.  A useless proceeding; moreover it is likely to
 create fresh dukkha.  The confirmed grumbler is disliked, and is
 consequently avoided by his acquaintances who leave him "to stew in his
 own juice."
 
 6.  //Worry and Flurry (Agitation)//.  This one of the Five Hindrances,
 is destructive of Calm.  Work is badly performed, and the unfortunate
 sufferer may in time wear himself to a shadow.  "We worry because we
 want to do so."  This is a hard saying, but worth some wise reflection.
 
 7.  //To Look for a Quick Remedy//.  "I've got a headache.  Where's the
 aspirin?"
 
 8.  //Drink and Drugs//.  "He drowned his sorrows in drink, and got the
 helluva hangover!"  "She's taken to chain-smoking, and it ain't 'alf
 done 'er cough good!"  The Welfare State has had sad repercussions in
 the way of addiction to "Tranquilizers" and "Pep Pills," and the
 smuggling of cocaine and heroin.  "Drugging" may take a mental or
 intellectual form, such as the incessant use of radio and television.
 The constant reading of sensational literature, space-fiction or
 who-dun-its, is another example. This sort of thing, especially when
 read in the small hours, is likely to exacerbate rather than relieve
 nervous strain.
 
 9.  //Hate and Ill-Will//.  Another Hindrance, and very liable to crop
 up when one has suffered a real, or supposed, injury by somebody else.
 A common example is the "slanging match" that ensues when two motor
 cars have been in collision.  The injured party lets off at the other
 fool, who immediately retaliates, and so, probably because both are
 suffering from shock, they increase each other's dukkha.  On a lesser
 scale is the ill-will that is engendered when one encounters a rude
 shop-assistant, or is pushed about in a queue.  The tendency is to
 shove back, or be sarcastic, and these minor frets linger in the memory
 for a long time afterwards.
 
 //Revenge// is a deadly extension of the Hate reaction.  "An eye for an
 eye, and a tooth for a tooth."  The worst results are individual
 murders, and the age-old blood feud, or vendetta. For the Buddha's
 advice on this subject see "The Parable of the Saw,"  Majjh. Nik. 21.
 
 10.  //Envy//.  "I've been ploughed in my 'finals," but that blighter
 X. has pulled off an honors degree!"  And so on, in every walk of life.
 There is one form of envy which we' as Dhamma farers, must be
 especially careful to avoid.  This arises when our own practice is
 going badly, and we hear of someone else who has "made gains."  If we
 are not careful we fret, and lose heart, with disastrous results.  Does
 somebody whisper "Mudita -- sympathetic joy?"  That ought to be the
 reaction.
 
 11.  //Hysterical Outbursts//.  This type of reaction is very
 interesting. Floods of tears, outbursts of profanity, and the smashing
 of crockery are frowned upon by society, but in actual fact they have a
 cathartic effect:  a vast accumulation of emotion is worked off in a
 very short time, and when the sufferers come to their senses they feel
 much better for having given way.
 
 12.  //Enjoyment of Suffering//.  The worst manifestation is sadism,
 which is fortunately rare. There is, however, a delight in spectacles
 that involve suffering to others, such as the gladiatorial combats in
 ancient Rome, the Spanish bullfights, and sports that frequently
 involve serious accidents.  These things provide thrills for the
 spectators who thereby satisfy their craving for sensation. The Tragic
 Drama of ancient Greece was designed for a different purpose, that of
 arousing Pity and Terror in the audience.  The effect was intended to
 be cathartic:  by witnessing dukkha on an Olympian scale the spectators
 gained a sense of proportion, and were purged of their own emotions.
 The effect can be quite terrifying; on one occasion a translation of
 "The Trojan Women" of Euripides, acted on an English stage, reduced the
 whole audience to tears.  The reaction was a strange mixture of pain
 and exaltation.
  
 In a more subtle form there is enjoyment of one's personal dukkha --
 the sensation of being a martyr.  And it is possible to feel that
 because one is capable of great suffering this faculty raises one above
 the insensitive herd.  This appears to be a superiority conceit.
 
 13. //Capitalization of misfortune//, as in the case of midgets,
 "armless wonders" and Siamese twins who earn their living by exposing
 their deformities to the public gaze.  A degrading example of gain from
 another's misfortune is the case of the Spanish beggar who displays the
 distorted legs of his own little boy. A minor example of this is the
 desire to make the most of one's own affliction as when a blind man or
 a cripple hurls himself into a stream of traffic because he knows that
 everything will give way to him.  And have not many of us been tempted
 to prolong a period of convalescence?
 
 14. //Relapse into Dullness (Moha)//.  Sometimes it seems that the ego
 can no longer contend with life; it throws up the sponge, so to speak,
 and the sufferer becomes mentally deranged.  Any form of mental
 disorder may occur; and the patient has the doubtful blessing of being
 freed from his responsibilities.  Another type of this reaction occurs
 in people who, tired out with the hardships and monotony of life,
 refuse to get out of bed after an illness. There they will lie, year
 after year, content to spend the rest of their lives as social
 parasites.
 
 15. //Physical//.  Dukkha, which is always associated with some kind of
 emotion, shows out physically in a number of ways.  Sudden bad news has
 the effect of a blow in the stomach, and in times of stress there is a
 general feeling of weight in the abdomen; continued worry frequently
 produces gastric troubles of an organic nature.  Shock can turn the
 hair white in the course of a few hours, and fear, now, as in the
 Buddha's time, can make the hair stand on end (Dig. Nik. I.2.).
 Sweating is another phenomenon associated with fear and nervousness, so
 is palpitation.  "My heart went into my boots!"  is a common expression
 signifying a state of alarm.  When anger arises as a result of some
 unpleasant happening circulatory changes are very common:  the red, or
 even purple, face, and there is a "white anger" that is still more
 devastating.
 
 16. //Suicide//:  the last resort of the anguished.  In the eyes of the
 Western Church it is a "mortal sin"; the law regards it as a crime, and
 the public believes that it is due to either cowardice or lunacy.  The
 Stoics thought otherwise:  "Remember that the door stands open.  Be not
 more fearful than children; but as they, when weary of the game, cry 'I
 will play no more.' Even so, when thou art in like case, cry 'I will
 play no more' and depart.  But if thou stayest, make no lamentation"
 (Epictetus). For the Buddhist suicide is a grievous mistake because it
 is a kamma-producing act, and on account of its violence will produce
 some violent form of kamma in a future life.  The only exception is the
 Arahant, a perfected one whose kamma is no longer operative; he may end
 his life how and when he will.
 

 This is a formidable list, though incomplete; the most obvious reaction
 has been left out.  Can readers supply it for themselves? On looking
 through this unedifying catalogue the writer was horrified to find how
 many of our reactions to dukkha stem from the Three Roots of Evil,
 Greed, Hate and Delusion.  There remain, however, several reactions
 that are, in the main, healthy.
 
 1. //Endurance//.  "The Lord gave and the Lord taketh away.  Blessed be
 the Lord."  That is the endurance of the "faithful," and it is
 dangerously near blind acceptance.  In Buddhism endurance is a positive
 virtue which eliminates some of the cankers (asavas). Uncomfortable
 physical conditions, minor pains and injuries "irritating talk" are
 things to be taken in one's stride, without complaint and without
 ill-will, and without even the wish for a more comfortable situation
 (Majjh. Nik. 2.).
 
 2. //The Heroic//.  "Curse God and Die!"  That is defiance of Fate in
 the person of Omnipotence,
 
 	"Under the bludgeonings of chance
 	My head is bloody, but unbowed."
 
 Pride, "stinking pride," but there is nothing craven in it. A very
 different heroism is that with which the blind and the disabled fight
 their way back again into a useful existence and the unrecognized
 courage of the women who cope with the //res angusta domi// -- the
 littleness and bitterness that domestic life so often involves.  It can
 be said that the heroic reaction is needful to all of us; only those
 disciples who possess the Ariyan, or heroic spirit will be able to
 remain steadfast.
 
 3. //The Philosophic//.  "There are worse things happen at sea!" "It'll
 be all the same in a hundred years."  On a somewhat higher level Lady
 Mary Wortley Montague wrote to Pope:  "Let us then, which is the only
 true philosophy, be contended with our chance of being born in this
 vile planet, where we shall find however, God be thanked, much to laugh
 at, though little to approve." For "chance" read kamma, but let us keep
 the laughter (it is one of the "selling points" of Zen). Humor, because
 it is aware of the incongruities of existence, is in reality a sense of
 proportion. It ought to be possible to see oneself as of less
 importance in the general scheme of things than is a solitary louse,
 crawling down Piccadilly, compared with the rest of London.
 
 4. //The Creative//.  Poets, in company with artists and musicians,
 often find that their best work is done when they are suffering from
 some stress.  Dukkha is then kept under control, and actually serves a
 useful purpose.  This reaction occurs in less exalted people who,
 instead of moping, have the will to get up and do something.  This is
 the beginning, in a very modest form, of the virtue of Energy.
 
 5. //Compassion/.  This age is usually referred to as money-grubbing
 and self-centered.  But when obvious dukkha, of the adventitious order,
 arises there is a quick response.  A bad railway accident or a motor
 smash brings out the fundamental decency of humanity; help is proffered
 quite regardless of reward, or even of thanks. The infirm and the blind
 are surprised by the number of helping hands held out to them.  On the
 contrary, the less obvious signs of ill are overlooked.  Who has
 compassion on the grumblers, the bores, and the poor fools whom we
 imagine to be inferior to ourselves.  These people, for whom we have an
 aversion, are equally in need of compassion.  We are under no
 obligation to seek them out for the purpose of doing them good, but,
 when they cross our path, we can at least deal gently with them.
 Lastly, there are occasions when we should have compassion on
 ourselves, particularly our body, //rupa-kkhandha//, "Brother Ass," who
 has to carry the weight of all the other //khandhas//.
 
 //Personal Dukkha//, "wherein the heart knoweth his own bitterness," is our
 inescapable heritage.  From earliest childhood we have been occupied
 with "I-making and mine-making" until we have persuaded ourselves that
 "I" am the pivot around which the whole universe, that is to say the
 //samsara//, revolves:  our sense of proportion is completely lost.
 Does it matter to the beings on Mars, if any, that Miss A. has been
 jilted? "But it matters to ME!" is the instant reply of poor Miss A.
 And for practical purpose it does matter to Miss A.'s immediate
 associates how the unfortunate girl will react.  She might, for
 instance, (a) drown herself, (b) go into a convent, (c) get on with her
 job, and stop lamenting, or (d) take to writing poetry.
 
 There are several aspects of personal "ill" that hit us all sooner or
 later.  The most conspicuous of these are:
 
 1.  //Pain and Illness//.  "Not death or pain is to be feared, but the
 //fear// of death and pain"  (Epictetus).  Pain itself is an
 extraordinary problem.  We know that in many cases it is a danger
 signal indicating that some part of the body is out of order, and we
 think that pain is felt at the site of the injury or disease. This is
 not the case, for pain is an affair of consciousness, and is felt in
 the //mind// where it produces an emotional reaction. This is so
 deep-seated that we do not recognize its emotional nature, and
 consequently do not label it.  Personally I think it is a mixture of
 self-pity, resentment and fear, all of which arise from //dosa//, the
 Evil Root of Hate.  Certainly we know from experience than an agonizing
 pain produces a mental state of sheer, blind misery.  A strong argument
 that pain is emotional is to be found by watching the results of an
 injection of morphia. The patient who has had a "shot" frequently
 notices a queer phenomenon:  the pain is //still there//, but he
 doesn't care a tinker's curse about it!  The morphia has acted on the
 emotional center in the brain, and damped it down to such an extent
 that the self-pity, resentment and fear have vanished.
 
 This emotional element explains the very different way in which people
 react to pain.  An apparently trivial injury can lay out someone of the
 emotional type, while those whose temperaments are phlegmatic or
 philosophic merely yelp or swear.  The intensity of the pain
 experienced clearly depends upon the consciousness of each individual.
 The perfected consciousness of the Arahant is above both pain and
 pleasure, the emotional life is so controlled that he is aware of both
 feelings, but does not "mind" either of them.  This suggests that an
 objective approach to our own pains will diminish our suffering.  The
 analysis of the whole thing from start to finish helps to draw off the
 mind from the actual feeling, and thereby lessens the emotional
 reactions. The odd idea of the soldier "biting on the bullet" is no
 idle fancy, for if he concentrates on the bullet he cannot at the same
 time concentrate on the pain.  What probably happens is that his mind
 flickers with incredible rapidity between the two ideas; the pain is
 still there but may be reduced to bearable dimensions.
 
 The same objective attitude applies to illness.  As is also the case
 with pain, illness impairs the mental functions.  The practice of
 Dhamma is hindered, and the sick man becomes dejected and ashamed.
 "Wherefore, house-father, thus should you train yourself; 'Though my
 body is sick, my mind shall not be sick.' Thus, house-father, must you
 train yourself."  (Some Sayings of the Buddha: p. 132).  The right
 reactions, therefore, to both pain and illness are Endurance and
 Courage -- heroism.
 
 2. //Attachments//.  Though attachments to things can constitute a
 menace, attachment to persons produces greater woe than all the rest of
 our misfortunes put together.  There is a very important sutta "On
 'Born of the Affections'" (Majjh. Nik., Vol. II No. 87) that emphasizes
 the dukkha due to personal relationships. We grow up believing that in
 human love lies our greatest happiness. And for ordinary people it is
 so.  Then, why all this fuss about grief, sorrow, suffering,
 lamentation and despair?  The answer brings us up against one of the
 basic facts of existence:  //anicca//, impermanence.  Love is a
 conditioned thing -- because it arises it must also cease.  It is hard
 to realize that love, even in its most idealistic form, is in reality a
 manifestation of //tanha//, craving.  We grasp at it hoping for
 security, for understanding, for fulfillment -- for the assuaging of
 our "primordial anguish." And for a fraction of time we may experience
 all these, and deludedly believe that the riddle of the Sphinx has been
 answered. This is no so.
 
 Two things are to be apprehended in respect of all attachments, the
 first of which is Death.  The sword of Yama sweeps away pets, children,
 friends and lovers, and we are left -- left to grow old. That, in human
 terms, is a tragedy, but it is a //clean// ending. Secondly,
 Disillusion sets in when the glamour of the contact has worn off.  We
 notice "alteration and otherness" in the beloved object, and a blight
 comes over the relationship.  This may be so serious that the
 attachment may be broken off, leaving in many instances heartache and
 bitterness frequently accompanied by a sense of shame.  In extreme
 cases love turns to hate.  This arises when the hater thinks he has
 been cheated or deceived; he hates himself for being a fool, and it is
 this self-hatred which is projected on to the erstwhile loved one.
 
 Some form of "alteration and otherness" //must// occur in every case
 because we ourselves are altering all the time.  Enduring friendships
 and life-long loves do occur because the partners consciously or
 unconsciously adapt their behavior to the altering circumstances, and
 by so doing alter themselves in the right direction.
 
 The cynic will ask:  Why love at all if the end-result is always
 dukkha?  Because, while we are unenlightened, we are impelled into it
 by the driving force of our own kamma; it is a necessary experience. We
 shall never understand what //metta// really is unless, in this or
 former lives, we have lived through heights and depths of human love.
 Metta, which is love on a self-transcending plane, irradiates the whole
 world, whereas human love can only glorify two bundles of khandhas for
 a limited period.  "Whenever, wherever, whatever happiness if found it
 belongs to happiness."  (Majjh. Nik. Vol. II No 59.)  The Buddha,
 though he emphasized dukkha, never forbid nor denied happiness. His
 teaching noted the happiness of the sensory world, and led on to the
 happiness to be derived from the practice of Dhamma.  Beyond this is a
 happiness "that is more excellent and exquisite", known only in the
 transcendental states.
 
 2. //Aging//.  Strictly speaking aging begins at the very moment of
 conception.  A baby in the throes of teething experiences suffering due
 to aging, and so too do teenagers at the time of puberty.  But the ills
 of old age are the most obvious.  The bodily changes bear hardly on
 those who were once good-looking, less hardly on the "homely" or the
 ugly. There is an irksome slowing down of one's physical activities;
 one can only move in second gear.  There is the boredom of too much
 leisure occupied by too few interests.  These things arouse in many
 people a wild rebellion -- "I hate old age!"  This is a useless
 reaction; it only intensifies the suffering.
 
 Old age is a time of limitation, but it could be, indeed ought to be, a
 time of opportunity.  Late nights, motoring, continental journeys and
 even gardening are gone forever.  These, and similar pleasures, are
 material things; they belong to //samsaric// existence. They must go,
 but now we have the chance to let them go willingly, with knowledge,
 but without repining.  This is the time to break old habits, to realize
 that living is just another habit and prepare ourselves to break with
 that too.  Furthermore, it is an opportunity to notice, and to break up
 clinging, a time to stop accumulating, and to begin disposing of
 superfluous possessions.
 
 4. //Death//.  It is impossible while we are still alive to react to
 death itself; we can only react to the thought of it.  At the moment of
 writing it is still a future event that may happen twenty years hence,
 or it might occur within the next twenty minutes.  One's thought leaps
 to the other side of death:  What happens afterwards?  Here we
 encounter ideas that vary according to our upbringing and our later
 studies.
 
 	"Rest after toil,
 	Port after stormy seas,
 	Death after life
 	Do greatly please."
 
 Very pretty; very pretty indeed, but probably wrong.  As long as "I"
 want to be //I// (and a long time after), "I" shall plunge back into
 the samsara, the essentially restless state in which "I" am now living.
 An animal birth?  A birth in one of the purgatories, or in a deva
 world?  We do not know.  Nor do we know how long it will be, according
 to time-as-we-know it, before that rebirth takes place.  Can
 consciousness, having provided itself with a mental body, or "body of
 craving," still function in the interval between death and rebirth? The
 Tibetan Book of the Dead has much to say about the Bardo, the
 Intermediate State, but the Pali canon gives no hint of it; such
 speculations were put aside as "wriggling, scuffling and speculative
 views, the wilds of speculative views."  The Buddha would have nothing
 to do with views.
 
 "Let be the future."  Our concern is with the Here-Now.  Death is Ill
 because it puts an end to the opportunities we now have, as human
 beings, for the study and practice of Dhamma.  It behooves us,
 therefore, to cultivate a sense of urgency with regard to death.
 Paradoxically, at the age of seventy death seems as far away, or even
 further, than it did at seventeen.  The old have the habit of living so
 strongly developed that they cannot conceive the idea of doing anything
 else.  They dislike being disturbed: death will not only disturb them,
 but it will tear them away from their rightful background.  They resent
 this:  the "I" without its conventional attire will feel so naked.  The
 Christian heaven has scant attraction for the average Christian because
 it equates with the Unknown.
 
 Many young people respond to the thought of death in an entirely
 different fashion:  "To die will be a great adventure'."  That is the
 Heroic Reaction of the young -- and the young in heart.
 
 Erasmus, the greatest scholar that the Reformation produced, wrote a
 treatise on The Art of Good Dying, or How to Achieve a Good Death.  He
 held that a deathbed repentance and the Rite of Holy Church availed
 nothing.  In order to die well a man must live well in the highest
 sense of the word.  That is sound doctrine. For us it means Morality,
 Concentration, and Intuitive Wisdom coupled with the sense of urgency.
 
 "Now this, monks, is the Noble Truth about the ceasing of Ill. Verily
 it is this Noble Eightfold Path, that is:  Right View...RIGHT
 MINDFULNESS, Right Contemplation."
 
 Students who are well-trained in Mindfulness cope with dukkha in a very
 different fashion from the rest of us whose minds are still at the
 "drunken monkey" stage.  Our personal "Ills" sizzle around us like
 virulent mosquitoes; if the suffering is severe our own Mindfulness is
 completely overwhelmed by SELF-PITY, which is both a "muddy" and a
 muddling reaction.  Our sense of proportion is lost, and we make
 matters worse for ourselves by imagining a host of unpleasant
 developments that might arise in the future.  If, when we are in this
 state of woe, we will pause and sort out our reactions -- they are
 usually mixed -- to the situation, naming each in turn, whether they
 are healthy or otherwise, we shall be practicing Mindfulness with
 regard to Mental States, a very important branch of right Mindfulness.
 This is a very helpful practice because the mind is drawn away from the
 dukkha itself, and is switched on to something that is really
 worthwhile.
 
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