When he set the Wheel of the Law in motion at Deer Park in Benares, the Buddha explained that birth is suffering, aging is suffering, illness is suffering, death is suffering, union with the hateful is suffering, separation from the beloved is suffering, failing to obtain the desired is sufferings, and all elements of our physical and psychological environments are suffering. The first four of these are called the four sufferings, and the entire series the eight sufferings.
Basic Buddhist Concepts