Dukkha

If the mind is intrisically open and pure, is it fair to say that between where we are now and the full unfoldment of that open awareness lies a layer of dukkha? Then dukkha is almost a fundamental quality of life. Being omnipresent in one form or another. It seems to me that the trouble arises because it is so hard admit just how much things hurt. Our response to pain is almost always one of trying to shut it down and to crave for an alternative, pleasant experience instead. So the pain which inhabits our bodies (I am mainly talking about emotional pain) is hardly ever fully felt. The irony being that just this loving awareness of pain is what is required to heal it. Hence in dependence upon dukkha faith arises and so on. But the mind being what it is would rather create one of another of the six realms to avoid taking reponsability for dukkha. Another problem is that we have no concept of 'skhanda dukkha' in the west. This is the grief we inherit simply by having a body and not being free of delusions. This is felt often as a causeless, inexplicable but very real suffering. I believe that without cultural acknowledgement that being alive hurts and that this is not a personal failing, we are prone to despair. How easy it is for the mind to claim that there is really no valid reason for us to be feeling as we do, so we fight the pain and whip the heart up into a deluded frenzy. So inhabiting the body of dukkha which we carry around with us slowly begins to make us genuine and human.