What is suffering?

When we are physically hurt or when we get sick, we often experience some of the greatest pain in our life. This creates suffering because it forces us to bear through what our very own nervous system was designed to tell us was unbearable.

In the greatest moments of people's unhappiness, they suffer because they feel like they are alienated from themselves and their sense of being. They no longer feel human. When people are made slaves to the slave master of the state, they suffer most because they cannot become happy.

Unfulfilled desire causes frustration, and the rejection of frustration is the source of suffering. When we do not attain our strongest desires, we are frustrated. This frustration that one feels due to not achieving their desire causes suffering.