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Imagine a world (a planet with humans) without suffering that the people in there are always happy,nothing to worry about.What would be the characteristics of that world ? At least,Can we define the characteristics of that perfect world ?

Edit: I got this question by listening to Dhamma on Eight Worldly Conditions (Ashta Loka Dharma). Either good or bad,every person have to experience profits,losses,praises,insulting ..etc.It is equal to a person in a heaven and also in a lower realm. If world have only 4 rules (only profits, praises ....),Would it be perfect ?

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  • If there are only enlightened people, there is no suffering for sure, Are there another way ? (A world with no suffering for non enlightened people)
    – Dum
    Apr 4, 2020 at 4:18
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    In pali texts world in and by itself is explained to be 'suffering', not as a verb 'the world is in a state of distress' or 'suffering is experienced in the world' but 'the world is suffering' as a noun, what is called world that is also called suffering, suffering isn't one thing and the world another. You can't having drawn a distinction separate the two as to have one without the other.
    – user8527
    Apr 4, 2020 at 12:03
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    Many people get this wrong. Thinking that some existant phenomena isn't stressful under certain conditions is what prompts the clinging to the world. They think 'if there is no attachment then there is an existance without suffering' but existence itself is foul, compared to excrement, existence itself is not approved of, not even the shortest spell of existence is approved of by the Lord, not even for as long as a snap of the fingers.
    – user8527
    Apr 4, 2020 at 16:15

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Good question. Suffering should be fully comprehended. What exactly is the definition of suffering? Is been poor suffering? Will your suffering be eliminated if you become rich? We all know about this kind of suffering. What Buddha taught was more profound than that. It is not easy to comprehend. Buddha taught three kinds of suffering. Dukkhadukkha Viparinama Dukka Samsara Dukkha Only Buddha taught Samsara Dukkha.

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  • Loss is suffering in the world, painful feelings and the parting with what is dear is suffering in the world, these are sufferings in a qualified sense. The flaw of impermanence is associated with the fleeting, that inevitable parting, the unreliability of conditioned phenomena, that is a characteristic of what is 'a suffering' in a definitive sense. Non arising of that which is ill, where neither this world nor another, just this is the cessation of stress.
    – user8527
    Apr 4, 2020 at 16:02
  • Dukkhataa, an abstract noun denoting "suffering" in the most general sense. 1.Dukkha-dukkhataa, the actual feeling of physical or mental pain or anguish. 2.Sankhaara-dukkhataa, the suffering produced by all "conditioned phenomena" 3. Viparinaama-dukkhataa, the suffering associated with pleasant bodily and mental feelings: "because they are the cause for the arising of pain when they change"
    – user8527
    Apr 4, 2020 at 16:05
  • These are the three which Sarath points out.
    – user8527
    Apr 4, 2020 at 16:06
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To understand a world empty of suffering, the Shorter Discourse on Emptiness might help. MN121 describes a discussion the Buddha once had with Ananda:

MN121:3.3: ‘Ānanda, these days I usually practice the meditation on emptiness.’

The sutta starts with noting the present and shared emptiness:

MN121:4.1: Consider this stilt longhouse of Migāra’s mother. It’s empty of elephants, cows, horses, and mares; of gold and money; and of gatherings of men and women. There is only this that is not emptiness, namely, the oneness dependent on the mendicant Saṅgha.

The Buddha continues with deeper and deeper stages of the meditation on emptiness.

MN121:4.3: In the same way, a mendicant—ignoring the perception of the village and the perception of people—focuses on the oneness dependent on the perception of wilderness.

And at very end of the sutta on emptiness, we see a confirmation of the inevitable stress associated with living:

MN121:12.3: There is only this modicum of stress, namely that associated with the six sense fields dependent on this body and conditioned by life.’

In a world without suffering, if we step on a thorn, there will still be the stress of the thorn piercing the foot.

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The universe is subjected to three marks of existence, hence there cannot be anywhere in the universe which there is no suffering.

For a perfect world to exist you need to have:

  • permanence
  • satisfaction and lack of pain
  • controlling and permanent self
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