The Three Sufferings — Why the World Cannot Provide Lasting Happiness
Patanjali identifies three types of suffering that permeate conditioned existence: pain from one's own body and mind, pain from external beings, and pain from natural forces — and concludes that all conditioned experience is ultimately painful for the discriminating person.
Sutra 2.15 — 'parinama tapa samskara duhkhaih guna vritti virodhach ca duhkham eva sarvam vivekinah' — states that for the discriminating person, all conditioned experience is suffering (duhkha) because of three factors: Parinama duhkha (suffering from change — nothing pleasurable remains pleasurable), Tapa duhkha (suffering from anxiety — the fear of losing what is pleasant), and Samskara duhkha (suffering from conditioning — the habitual patterns that re-create the same suffering repeatedly). Plus, the conflict between the movements of the gunas themselves produces friction and pain. This teaching is Patanjali's version of the First Noble Truth of Buddhism — and its purpose, like the Buddha's, is not pessimism but radical clarity: if conditioned experience cannot provide lasting happiness, we must seek happiness in the Unconditioned.
For the person of discrimination, all conditioned existence is suffering.
Philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer recognized in this sutra — which he encountered through the first Sanskrit translation of the Yoga Sutras — the clearest articulation of what he called 'the will to live' as the source of all suffering, making Patanjali the most direct Eastern influence on Western pessimist philosophy.
Yoga Sutras of Patanjali