Eight Types of Suffering

Eight types of suffering are:

1.  The suffering of birth.

2.  The suffering of old age.

3.  The suffering of illness.

4.  The suffering of death.

5.  The suffering of encountering what is unpleasant.

6.  The suffering of separation from what is pleasant.

7.  The suffering of not getting what one wants.

8.  The suffering of the five appropriated aggregates.

In Lama Tsongkhapa’s Great Stages of the Path, the eight types of suffering are explained thoroughly.

Source: Geshe Tashi Tsering, The Four Noble Truths (Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2005). Notes taken from “Chapter 2: The Truth of Suffering”, pages 29-56.