The First Noble Truth the Buddha Taught: Life Is Suffering
Well, not exactly. When some people first hear or read that, their first impression of Buddhism might be that it’s dour and sad. No gleam of light, no humor, just dreary suffering.
Of course that’s not what the First Nobel Truth is saying. It does say that being human means we will suffer.  Being conscious is going to lead to suffering. To be human is to see the world and want it different. A baby feels hungry and wants to be full. It’s raining and we want sun. It’s sunny and we want rain. It’s cold, it’s hot, people aren’t nice, it’s hard to do things, it costs too much money, I WANT SOMETHING ELSE!
As the Finnish artists Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen walked along on a bitterly cold Finnish winter’s day, they wondered about how very much energy people put into complaining. And what else could be made from that energy. I don’t think they are buddhists, but what a great transformation of energy they managed!
The Complaints Choirs were born.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=2w84qzHdEms%26hl%3Den%26fs%3D1%22
Check it out for yourself where I found it, at P.S.1, MOMA’s most excellent Queens outpost of contemporary art. Aside from the fantastic and highly future interdependently blog-worthy P.F.1 (Public Farm 1, an urban farm), I saw the Arctic Hysteria show, featuring the work of Finnish artists, including the laughter and tear-producing video of Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen. It’s true. It’s the first truth. We complain. And we can smile.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=UknCsE9cxF8%26hl%3Den%26fs%3D1%22
— in Singapore, Chicago, Birmingham Englsnd, Helsinki. . . and more.
The choir of Wroclaw
https://youtube.com/watch?v=-LDC_DF1gQ8%26hl%3Den%26fs%3D1%22