The main point Dunne is trying to make is that suffering is a part of life and it can either be accepted by knowing suffering is inevitable and there is no escape, or one can learn to understand what suffering really means and reject the idea that waiting around for suffering is the only thing that can be controlled. .
It is not difficult to understand what the two types of suffering are given by Dunne. He makes it pretty obvious in chapter two that his idea of two types of suffering are compassion and forgiveness. The difficult part is trying to understand exactly what he means by these two words. One can easily get the definition of compassion and forgiveness out of a dictionary. But relating them to suffering is something that must be looked at more closely. Dunne makes it very clear that everyone suffers and it can be viewed as a personal hell for many. However, he adds, "compassion and forgiveness have a power, we have found, to abolish that hell" (Dunne, p. 49). How to abolish the hell and end personal suffering is what Dunne repeatedly mentions as being important.
Dunne explains compassion through the teachings of Gotama or more commonly known as Buddha. Dunne says how suffering was in Gotama's life even after "Gotama went into the wilderness and learned compassion". This experience allowed Gotama to provide examples of how to apply compassion in life. By providing examples of how Gotama saw suffering shows it is necessary to learn from suffering in order to understand suffering. Learning from suffering comes with age. The more one suffers, the more one learns. Gotama teaches that understanding compassion is a key if one wants to learn how to deal with suffering. The way to go about understanding compassion is what needs to be learned first before understanding compassion, as well as, forgiveness. .
Gotama uses what he calls the wheel of fortune to help others understand his meaning of compassion, which makes it easier for others to understand exactly what he is talking about.