Question : Is the dukkha of the ariyans, the noble persons who have attained enlightenment, different from the dukkha of ordinary people?

Answer : The realities which arise and fall away are dukkha and nobody can change this truth. The term dukkha sacca or dukkha ariya sacca referes to one of the three characteristics of conditoned realities, namely their arising and falling away. Nobody can prevent the reality which has arisen from falling away again. The characteristic of the reality which arises and falls away is dukkha, because arising and falling away is suffering, not happiness. All people want happiness which lasts, which continues forever and which does not fall away, but conditioned realities have the characteristic of dukkha, because they arise and then fall away immediately. There are three characteristics common to all conditioned realities, namely: the characteristic of impermanence, that is, the arising and falling away, the characteristic of dukkha, suffering or unsatisfactoriness, since what arises and falls away cannot be happiness, and the characteristic of anatta, non-self. There is no self who can exert control over realities, because they are as they are, according to their own nature.

Dukkha sacca is the truth of dukkha, and what is true does not depend on whether a person understands and realizes it or not. Nobody can change the truth of dukkha. The person who has realized by his own experience the truth of dukkha is an ariyan. Therefore, also the term dukkha ariya sacca, the noble truth of dukkha, is used, which is the truth of ariyans, the enlightened ones, the truth realized by the ariyans.