Duhkha

Sanskrit term for the fundamental existential unease or inner friction immanent in human existence — a structural imperfection of the human condition.

The article compares Stoic and Buddhist perspectives: whereas Buddhism regards Duhkha as a cosmic principle of imperfection, Stoicism recognises the same phenomenon under different terms (Ananke, Antikeimenon). Duhkha is not psychological suffering but ontological tension — the bare fact that existence contains resistance, loss, and the need for adaptation.