This dissertation inquires into the significance of the concept of suffering. It takes ?gama sutra and the Zhuangzi, two important scriptures in Indian Buddhist and Chinese Daoist traditions, as primary source material. Both works shed light on the concept of suffering, and are hence relevant to my philosophical concerns.
The first chapter introduces the research scope, the materials, methodology, and main goal. This chapter also clarifies the framework of my research, i.e. a basic distinction between two kinds of suffering that takes account of the variety of living beings. On the one hand, the spiritual suffering (聖道苦/ shengdao ku), or the suffering conceived by those who pursue sainthood; on the other, the ordinary suffering (俗行苦/ suxing ku), or the suffering recognized by those who do not have a spiritual goal in mind. For ordinary living beings, ‘suffering’ mainly denotes difficulties or hardship in life. For the sainthood pursuers, however, ‘suffering’ amounts to a dissatisfaction regarding their spiritual destination(s). More elaborate discussion concerning these two types of suffering is found in chapters three and four.
In chapter two, I propose a methodology--which I call contrastive reading methodology--to read and select materials within these two scriptures. After a detailed analysis based on this methodology, I point out the gist of the concept of suffering in ?gama sutra and the Zhuangzi: it denotes saṃsāra—the circle of life and death, in the former, while it connects to notions of ‘being constrained’ in the latte
