Sure, I can give my two cents. Lately, I've observed suffering in terms of the first and second arrow analogy, where the first arrow is unpleasant sensaiton or experience and the second arrow is a critical or negative reaction to it. I've been trying to see as much of the first arrow as possible - it is often an unpleasant emotional feeling in the pit of my stomach, or it might be the irritable nature of fatigue, the heaviness in my eyes - some type of emotional or phsyical pain. I also try to find and eliminate the second arrow - do I have an attitude of acceptance and is my observation clear, or is it filtered through attachment or aversion? Generally it's been an oppenness to unpleasant sensations. I read recently of someone, I think Daniel, explaining it as recognizing that you want things to be a little different - somehow the current situation could be better. And there's the very apparent suffering of life stressors, anxieties, the inevitability of dying, getting sick physically or mentally, and things not going how you want them to. I've found that with all of that, suffering is pretty much always there in some form or another.
Dukkha as a characteristic of existence has confused me in the past becuase the purpose of the eight-fold path is to reduce it. And what I understand a little bit better now is that suffering, the first arrow, is a part of living and will always be there. Part of waking up is acknowledging that it is always there - maybe very subtly, yet it is there.
