The following tables indicates Pali words, their usual English translations and comments on what is actually meant in the suttas:
| dukkha | suffering stress | Dukkha is best left untranslated. It does mean both "suffering" and "stress", but it also means "unsatisfactoriness" - basically "getting what one does not want" and "not getting what one does want". It covers all those little niggling feelings that life is not perfect. |
| sañña | perception | Sañña refers to the ability of the mind to name or categorize or identify a sense impression. It's the labeling of our experiences. |
| vedana | feelings | Vedana does NOT mean emotions - it means simply pleasant, unpleasant, or neither-pleasant-nor-unpleasant. It is the first impression a sense contact makes: "I like it" or "I don't like it" or "I don't care". Emotions are mental formations (sankhara) not vedana. |
| vitakka vicara | thinking pondering | These two do mean "thinking" and "pondering" or even "initial thought" and "applied thought" in many instances. However when they are used in the description of the 1st Jhana, they mean "initial attention to the meditation subject" and "sustained attention on the meditation subject". |
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/ Revised 20 June 03