When we talk about suffering in samsara, it's generally divided into three aspects; The Suffering of Suffering, The Suffering of Impermanence and All Pervasive Suffering.
The Suffering of Suffering is stuff like putting your foot on a spike, or generally any physical or mental experience or sensation we label as painful.
The Suffering of Impermanence would include things like bereavements, loosing something you value, receiving a huge tax bill or other unexpected burden. It's basically loosing that which you label as nice, pleasant or a cause of happiness and meeting the opposite.
All Pervasive Suffering is something much more subtle. I believe this is really what the First Noble Truth is referring to. In the Tibetan tradition this suffering is described as being felt more intensely by realised beings than by the rest of us. The difference is said to be like that of feeling a hair in ones eye versus feeling it the palm of ones hand.
The difference between realised beings and us in this case is critical.
Why?
Because most of the time we have no idea how much we are actually suffering. When it comes to samsaric suffering, at least temporarily, ignorance is indeed bliss.
No matter how traumatic the break-up of our seemingly perfect relationship, the fear at being diagnosed with cancer, the sense of loss and confusion at finding out our only child was killed before we even met them or even the pain of the lower realms, none of these are fully the understanding that we are suffering. This isn't in any way meant to be-little the the suffering mentioned by the way, rather to illustrate that whatever the obvious or explicit suffering, it's merely symptomatic of something much bigger. In other words, it's just the tip of the samsaric iceberg.
If we look more closely at our suffering, ideally from a less emotionally involved point of view, we find that it is all rooted in a sense of wanting something, or hoping to get something, which brings with it the fear of not getting this "something".
This lack of contentment and constant, admittedly subtle, search or craving is rooted in dualistic clinging to our ego-self, which is nothing more than an idea. This idea is strong and powerful enough to create the experience of hell, however it's not solid and ultimately not "real".
As long as we have clinging to self, or actually ANY sense of dualistic conceptuality, there will be suffering that comes from grasping.
Intellectually understanding that there is no grasper and objects to be grasped is fine, but until we realise it through direct experience we will still continue to suffering. And whilst we are still unaware of how much we are suffering right now, not to mention the future suffering we are storing up through our actions, we will gladly continue to lick the delicious and seemingly endless honey from the razor blade, only stopping when we cut ourselves on it.
To directly experience, and consequently realise, the reality of suffering, we have to contemplate and meditate on it, not just listen to Dharma talks about it or believe in it because the person we've labelled our teacher says it's there. Listening comes first, but is followed by contemplating and meditating.
According to the general Mahayana, and consequently the Vajrayana, all beings are at all times Buddha. Not a single one of us has ever been seperate from enlightenment, however due to the ignorance of dualistic clinging, this reality seems very far away. We are like someone who thinks they can't leave their house because they've lost the key.
Essence of Dharmadhatu, Glorious Karmapa,
Bless me and others mired in the swamp of ego-fixation that we may come to know even the very fixation itself as nothing other than the Four Bodies.
