What Is Suffering: Resistance, Concepts, & Beliefs

By Tchiki Davis, M.A., Ph.D.
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Suffering is at the heart of human experience. It seems to show up in countless forms—fear, grief, longing, despair, or the quiet unease that life is never quite enough. The Buddha called this dukkha, the pervasive unsatisfactoriness of life. But when examined closely, suffering is not caused by the external world. Instead, it is created by the way the mind interprets experience.

The mind convinces us that its thoughts and concepts are real. It tells us that life should be different than it is, and this gap between “what is” and “what should be” generates resistance. Resistance is the true root of suffering. Awakening is, at its core, the process of seeing through the mind’s illusions—illusions that create resistance.

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What Is Suffering?

Suffering is listening to thoughts and believing them. Each thought comes with a subtle claim: This is true. This is real. Because the mind is so convincing, we take concepts to be reality. Whenever reality tries to reveal the truth—that no mental concept is ultimately real—the mind creates new beliefs, emotions, and narratives that cover it up.

Although suffering appears to come from relationships, health issues, or unmet goals, beneath these surface triggers lies a single cause: resistance. Resistance is the mental pattern that says life should be different than it is. It takes the form of concepts, beliefs, and emotions that claim something is wrong, something is missing, or something needs to change.

This resistance continues even through the four stages of awakening. The mind keeps trying to persuade us that concepts are real. We may cling to the idea that life has a fixed “purpose.” But purpose is a concept. We may hold onto the notion that we are spacious awareness or that there is a “self.” Yet awareness and self are also concepts. We may still seek permanence, solidity, or satisfaction. These, too, are concepts.
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As Adyashanti observes, enlightenment is “the complete eradication of everything we imagined to be true.” Even the idea of truth itself is revealed to be unreal—just another concept the mind created. Ultimately, we don’t know anything, we never have, and we never will. When this is seen, resistance begins to collapse, and with it, suffering goes too.

Video: What Is Suffering?

Resistance Is Suffering

Resistance is not some abstract principle; it is the lived experience of suffering itself. Every concept, belief, or thought that insists reality should be otherwise is resistance in action. We often hear advice like “let go” or “surrender,” but these are often impossible until we see clearly the mental processes that create resistance.
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Resistance creates the very suffering it claims to oppose. It thinks it is pushing against fear, grief, or lack, but in truth, it is manufacturing them. The things resistance resists are not real until resistance itself gives them form. Without resistance, even the most difficult sensations are simply what they are.

In the end, even resistance is only a concept. It is a label attached to sensations in the body, given weight by belief. When the identification with resistance dissolves, resistance fades, and suffering disappears with it.

Pre-Awakening: Suffering Taken as Reality

Before awakening, resistance is invisible. Thoughts like I need to be better, life should be fair, or I must not fail appear unquestionably true. The self feels solid, and its struggles feel justified. Because resistance is unrecognized, suffering is seen as coming from the external world rather than the mind’s interpretations.

This stage of suffering is often what propels people into awakening. The endless attempts to fix life never yield lasting peace, leading to hopelessness and exasperation with the outside world. If we're lucky, this will turn us inward and jump-start the awakening process.

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Post-Awakening: The Relief and Intensification of Suffering

Awakening begins to expose resistance. Thoughts, once taken as absolute truth, are now seen as passing phenomena. The grip of concepts loosens, and suffering decreases. There is relief in realizing that much of life’s turmoil was fueled by illusions.

Yet awakening also brings new forms of suffering. When the self-concept starts to dissolve, the loss can feel destabilizing. The mind mourns its own fading relevance. This paradox means that awakening simultaneously reduces suffering (through disidentification with thought) and intensifies it (through the painful unraveling of the self-concept).
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The process can be unsettling: the ground of meaning, identity, and purpose—all concepts—crumbles. But this very crumbling is what clears the way for deeper freedom.

The 10 Fetters: Dissolving Resistance & Suffering

The Buddhist map of the 10 fetters shows how suffering is sustained by resistance, expressed as beliefs and thoughts that distort reality. Each fetter is not a tangible obstacle but a mental pattern of resistance—a story the mind tells about how life should be. As each fetter dissolves, resistance lessens, and suffering fades.
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1. Identity view – The belief: I am a permanent, separate self. This resists the fluidity of experience by insisting on a fixed identity or personality that must be protected.
2. Attachment to rites and rituals – The belief: If I follow the right formula, I’ll control reality. This resists uncertainty by clinging to practices, habits, and behaviors as if they guarantee freedom.
3. Skeptical doubt – The belief: I can’t trust this path or life itself. This resists openness by hiding behind hesitation and indecision.
4. Sensual craving – The belief: Lasting fulfillment can be found in pleasure. This resists the truth of impermanence by grasping at temporary highs.
5. Ill will – The belief: This moment is wrong; I must push it away. This resists discomfort by fighting life instead of allowing it to unfold.
6. Craving for form existence – The belief: I can find security in the stability and solidity of objects. This resists interconnectedness by holding onto the idea that solid, material 'somethings' really exist.
7. Craving for formless existence – The belief: I can find security in the stability and realness of mental objects, such as concepts, beliefs, and thoughts. This resists the truth of non-conceptual reality.
8. Conceit – The belief: There is still an “I am” at the center of all this. This resists complete surrender by holding to the idea that you exist in any permanent or separate way at all. 
9. Restlessness – The belief: Something is missing; I need something to be different. This resists acceptance by fueling endless seeking.
10. Ignorance – The belief: Concepts are real; I know what life is. This resists direct experience by filtering everything through mental filters.

The fetters reveal suffering as resistance, layer by layer. At first, resistance appears gross and obvious—grasping at pleasure, rejecting pain, or clinging to identity. Later, it becomes subtler—holding onto even a thought or idea or concept. With the final fetter, ignorance, the deepest resistance dissolves: the belief that concepts themselves are real. What remains is unresisted life, free from suffering.

The Beliefs That Create Resistance (& Suffering)

Each fetter below is presented as a belief or thought that generates resistance to some dimension of human experience. The examples illustrate how these beliefs commonly show up in everyday life.

Fetter	Belief (How it Resists)	How it Shows as Suffering	Example
Identity view	“I am a permanent, separate self.” Insists on a fixed identity that must be defended.	Clings to roles, personality traits, and accomplishments; interprets experience as personal gain or loss.	Refusing feedback at work because “that’s not who I am” (protecting a job-title identity).
Attachment to rites & rituals	“If I follow the right formula, I’ll control reality.” Clings to practices or routines as guarantees.	Becomes rigid about method; confuses form for transformation; fears missing steps.	Insisting a specific meditation schedule is the only way to progress and judging others.
Skeptical doubt	“I can’t trust this path or life itself.” Avoids openness by leaning into hesitation and second-guessing.	Paralysis, repeated testing, or refusal to commit to practice; distrust of insight.	Switching teachers or techniques every few months because “this isn’t it.”
Sensual craving	“Lasting fulfillment can be found in pleasure.” Grasps after transient pleasures as if they will endure.	Chasing experiences, addictions, or compulsive pleasure-seeking that deepen dissatisfaction.	Using social media bingeing or substances to avoid uncomfortable feelings.
Ill will	“This moment is wrong; I must push it away.” Reacts with aversion, anger, or resentment instead of allowing.	Creates tension and self-conceptual stories of injustice or victimhood.	Holding long-term resentment toward a partner for a past mistake and replaying it mentally.
Craving for form existence	“I can find security in the stability and solidity of objects.” This resists interconnectedness by holding onto the idea that solid, material 'somethings' really exist.	Holds physical, separate objects to be real, separate things.	Clinging to the idea that physical, material objects (such as a tree) are real or true.
Craving for formless existence	“I can find security in the stability and realness of mental objects, such as concepts, beliefs, and thoughts.” This resists the truth of non-conceptual reality.	Seeks refuge in ideas, imagination, future-oriented thinking, or mental states instead of resting in experience as it is.	Clinging to the idea that mental objects (thoughts) are true.
Conceit	“There is still an ‘I am’ at the center of all this.” Resists complete surrender by holding to the idea of existing permanently or separately.	Maintains subtle self-conceptual pride or comparison, even in advanced practice.	Feeling quietly superior because you’ve “seen through” certain beliefs while still identifying as the seer.
Restlessness	“Something is missing; I need something to be different.” Resists acceptance by fueling endless seeking.	Mental agitation that arises from the belief that anything could be other than it is.	Not noticing how we still believe untrue thoughts, beliefs, and concepts.
Ignorance	“Concepts are real; I know what life is.” Resists direct experience by filtering everything through mental constructs.	Interprets reality based on conceptual definitions rather than seeing clearly.	Assuming that anything is real in the way the mind perceives it to be.

Enlightenment: The End of Resistance

At enlightenment, resistance has no foothold. Thoughts still arise, sensations still move through the body, and pain may still be felt. But without resistance, none of these experiences become suffering. There is no “self” to resist them, no concept of how things should be otherwise.
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Enlightenment is not withdrawal from life; it is intimacy with life as it is. Freed from concepts, everything is allowed to appear and disappear. With no resistance, suffering has nowhere to land.

Suffering as Teacher

What begins as a burden becomes the path itself. Each moment of suffering is a mirror, reflecting the resistance that hides in thought. Rather than being an obstacle, suffering is the very mechanism through which awakening deepens.
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By tracing suffering back to resistance, then seeing that resistance is built of concepts, we begin to recognize the mind’s illusions. In this recognition, resistance loosens. Suffering, which once seemed so solid, reveals itself as nothing more than belief in thought.

Final Thoughts on Suffering

Suffering is not an external curse but the mind’s own resistance to conceptual reality. It arises from believing concepts are real, from insisting that life should be other than it is. Awakening softens this resistance, enlightenment ends it completely.
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The journey is paradoxical: suffering drives the search, awakening exposes its roots, and enlightenment reveals it was never real to begin with. Freedom is not found by changing life but by seeing through resistance. When nothing is resisted, suffering ends, and only the natural ease of life remains.

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