Dukkha — on unsatisfactoriness

Bhikkhu Bodhi argues in his introduction that translating dukkha as "suffering" is too narrow — it misses the baseline dissatisfaction that attaches even to pleasant things. He uses the word "unsatisfactoriness," which is ugly and clinical and exactly right. I keep wanting pleasant experiences to be more than they are, and there's a mild grief when they end or even when they're still happening. That's not ingratitude. That's dukkha. The problem isn't that life is painful. It's that conditioned things can't hold the weight I put on them.