Byādhi (Buddhism)


Byādhi is a Buddhist term that is commonly translated as sickness, illness, disease, etc., and is identified as an aspect of dukkha within the teachings on the Four Noble Truths.

Within the Four Noble Truths

Within the teachings on the Four Noble Truths, byādhi is identified as an aspect of dukkha. For example, The Discourse That Sets Turning the Wheel of Truth states:
  1. Now this, bhikkhus, is the noble truth of suffering : birth is suffering, aging is suffering, illness is suffering, death is suffering; union with what is displeasing is suffering; separation from what is pleasing is suffering; not to get what one wants is suffering; in brief, the five aggregates subject to clinging are suffering.
Byādhi can refer to physical or psychological sickness. Chogyam Trunpa explains the suffering of sickness as follows:

Web references