Who Created Dukkha?

revised on 2024-07-10

---

Dhamma Talks by Mogok Sayadaw; 13th June 1962

Dukkha is not given by others (e.g., God, with punishments). The dhammas in the khandha are giving you dukkha. You get dukkha because you are unable to cut off the cause of dukkha in your khandha. Not knowing the right cause means that it becomes ahetuka-diṭṭhi (causeless view) (when people suffer they blame it on others. What about the doctrine of a Creator? (Could it be counted in the ahetukavāda?)

(Sayadaw continues to talk about Sammasana Sutta from Saṃyutta Nikāya**.**) Where is jarā and maraṇa coming from? If you want to think you must think about truth. Only by finding out the enemy who will kill you can you exterminate him. Aging comes from the five khandhas (refer to ageing and death). You have to be aged by the heat element (tejo) brought with oneself (khandha). And you must die with it. Therefore in Nibbāna there are no four great elements.

Where is the khandha coming from? It comes from making prayers with taṇhā. Prayers like: "May I become a human being, a devatā and not let me separate from my family members, etc." These are requests for death.

Don’t be afraid of jarā and maraṇa. You have to fear the culprit, taṇhā – the prayer.

Again, where is taṇhā coming from? In this sutta it comes from affection, but in the D.A process it comes from feeling. Anyhow it falls into the khandha. The Buddha gives the example of affectionate things being like alcohol mixed with poison. Contemplate this khandha as anicca, dukkha, anatta, bhaya, etc. (impermanent, suffering, non-self, fearful). In this way, you will not drink the alcohol.

---

revised on 2024-07-10

---

• Content of Part 16 on "Dhamma Talks by Mogok Sayadaw"

---

• Content of "Dhamma Talks by Mogok Sayadaw"

---

• Content of Publications of Ven. Uttamo

---

According to the translator— Ven. Uttamo's words, this is strictly for free distribution only, as a gift of Dhamma—Dhamma Dāna. You may re-format, reprint, translate, and redistribute this work in any medium.