Three marks of existence

In Buddhism, the three marks of existence are three characteristics (Pali: tilakkhaṇa; Sanskrit: त्रिलक्षण trilakṣaṇa) of all existence and beings, namely anicca (impermanence), dukkha (commonly translated as "suffering" or "cause of suffering", "unsatisfactory", "unease"),^{[note 1]} and anattā (without a lasting essence).^[5][6][7][8] The concept of humans being subject to delusion about the three marks, this delusion resulting in suffering, and removal of that delusion resulting in the end of dukkha, is a central theme in the Buddhist Four Noble Truths, the last of which leads to the Noble Eightfold Path.

Description

There are different lists of the "marks of existence" found in the canons of the early Buddhist schools.^[9]

Three marks

In the Pali tradition of the Theravada school, the three marks are:^{[4][9][10][11]}

• sabbe saṅkhārā aniccā – all saṅkhāras (conditioned things) are impermanent
• sabbe saṅkhārā dukkhā – all saṅkhāras are unsatisfactory, imperfect, unstable
• sabbe dhammā anattā – all dharmas (conditioned or unconditioned things) have no unchanging self or soul

The northern Buddhist Sarvāstivāda tradition meanwhile has the following in their Samyukta Agama:^[9][12]

• All conditioned things are impermanent (sarvasaṃskārā anityāḥ)
• All dharmas are non-self (sarvadharmā anātmānaḥ)
• Nirvāṇa is calm (śāntaṃ nirvāṇam)

Four marks

In the Ekottarika-āgama and in Mahayana sources like the Yogācārabhūmi-Śāstra and The Questions of the Nāga King Sāgara (Sāgaranāgarājaparipṛcchā) however, four characteristics or “four seals of the Dharma” (Sanskrit: dharmoddāna-catuṣṭayaṃ or catvāri dharmapadāni, Chinese: 四法印) are described instead of three:^[9][13][14]

• All compounded phenomena are impermanent (anitya)
• All contaminated phenomena are without satisfaction (duḥkha)
• All phenomena are without self (anātman)
• Nirvana is peaceful/peace (śānta/śānti)

Explanation

Anicca

Main article: Impermanence

Impermanence (Pali: anicca, Sanskrit: anitya) means that all things (saṅkhāra) are in a constant state of flux. Buddhism states that all physical and mental events come into being and dissolve.^[15] Human life embodies this flux in the aging process and the cycle of repeated birth and death (Samsara); nothing lasts, and everything decays. This is applicable to all beings and their environs, including beings who are reborn in deva (god) and naraka (hell) realms.^[16][17] This is in contrast to nirvana, the reality that is nicca, or knows no change, decay or death.^[18]

Dukkha

Main article: Dukkha

Dukkha (Sanskrit: duhkha) means "unsatisfactory", commonly translated as "suffering", "pain".^[19][20][21] Mahasi Sayadaw calls it 'unmanagable, uncontrollable'.

As the First Noble Truth, dukkha is explicated as the physical and mental dissatisfaction of changing conditions as in birth, aging, illness, death; getting what one wishes to avoid or not getting what one wants; and "in short, the five aggregates of clinging and grasping" (skandha).^[19][22][23] This, however, is a different context, not the Three Marks of Existence, and therefore 'suffering' may not be the best word for it.

The relationship between the three characteristics is explained in the Pali Canon as follows: What is anicca is dukkha. What is dukkha is anatta (Samyutta Nikaya.Vol4.Page1).

• "That which is impermanent is dukkha (i.e. it cannot be made to last). That which is dukkha is not permanent."

Anatta

Main article: Anatta

Anatta (Sanskrit: anatman) refers to there being no permanent essence in any thing or phenomena, including living beings.^[24][25]

While anicca and dukkha apply to "all conditioned phenomena" (saṅkhārā), anattā has a wider scope because it applies to all dhammās without the "conditioned, unconditioned" qualification.^[26] Thus, nirvana too is a state of without Self or anatta.^[26] The phrase "sabbe dhamma anatta" includes within its scope each skandha (group of aggregates, heaps) that compose any being, and the belief "I am" is a conceit which must be realized to be impermanent and without substance, to end all dukkha.^[27]

The anattā doctrine of Buddhism denies that there is anything permanent in any person to call one's Self, and that a belief in a Self is a source of dukkha.^[28][29] Some Buddhist traditions and scholars, however, interpret the anatta doctrine to be strictly in regard to the five aggregates rather than a universal truth, despite the Buddha affirming so in his first sermon.^[30][31][32] Religious studies scholar Alexander Wynne calls anattā a "not-self" teaching rather than a "no-self" teaching.^[33]

Application

In Buddhism, ignorance (avidyā, or moha; i.e. a failure to grasp directly) of the three marks of existence is regarded as the first link in the overall process of saṃsāra whereby a being is subject to repeated existences in an endless cycle of dukkha. As a consequence, dissolving that ignorance through direct insight into the three marks is said to bring an end to saṃsāra and, as a result, to that dukkha (dukkha nirodha or nirodha sacca, as described in the third of the Four Noble Truths).

Gautama Buddha taught that all beings conditioned by causes (saṅkhāra) are impermanent (anicca) and suffering (dukkha), and that not-self (anattā) characterises all dhammas, meaning there is no "I", "me", or "mine" in either the conditioned or the unconditioned (i.e. nibbāna).^[34][35] The teaching of three marks of existence in the Pali Canon is credited to the Buddha.^[26][36][37]

See also

• Ātman
• Existentialism
• Four Dharma Seals
• Index of Buddhism-related articles
• Lakshana
• Secular Buddhism
• Similarities between Pyrrhonism and Buddhism
• Dharmamudrā

Notes

1. The term is probably derived from duh-stha, "standing unstable".^[1][2][3][4]

References

1. Monier-Williams 1899, p. 483, entry note: .
2. Analayo (2013).
3. Beckwith (2015), p. 30.
4. Alexander (2019), p. 36.
5. Steven Collins (1998). Nirvana and Other Buddhist Felicities. Cambridge University Press. p. 140. ISBN 978-0-521-57054-1.
6. Richard Gombrich (2006). Theravada Buddhism. Routledge. p. 47. ISBN 978-1-134-90352-8. All phenomenal existence [in Buddhism] is said to have three interlocking characteristics: impermanence, dukkha and lack of soul, that is, something that does not change.
7. Robert E. Buswell Jr.; Donald S. Lopez Jr. (2013). The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism. Princeton University Press. pp. 42–43, 47, 581. ISBN 978-1-4008-4805-8.
8. Carl Olson (2005). The Different Paths of Buddhism: A Narrative-Historical Introduction. Rutgers University Press. pp. 63–4. ISBN 978-0-8135-3778-8.
9. Tse-fu Kuan 關則富, 'Mahāyāna Elements and Mahāsāṃghika Traces in the Ekottarika-āgama' in Dhammadina (ed.) Research on the Ekottarika-āgama (2013). Dharma Drum Publishing, Taipei.
10. Hahn, Thich Nhat (1999). The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching. New York: Broadway Books. p. 22.
11. Walsh 1995, p. 30.
12. Thich Nhat Hanh, The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching
13. Ulrich Timme Kragh (editor), The Foundation for Yoga Practitioners: The Buddhist Yogācārabhūmi Treatise and Its Adaptation in India, East Asia, and Tibet, Volume 1 Harvard University, Department of South Asian studies, 2013, p. 144.
14. "The Questions of the Nāga King Sāgara (3) | 84000 Reading Room".
15. Anicca Buddhism, Encyclopædia Britannica (2013).
16. Damien Keown (2013). Buddhism: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press. pp. 32–8. ISBN 978-0-19-966383-5.
17. Peter Harvey (2012). An Introduction to Buddhism: Teachings, History and Practices. Cambridge University Press. pp. 32–33, 38–39, 46–49. ISBN 978-0-521-85942-4.
18. Thomas William Rhys Davids; William Stede (1921). Pali-EnC. Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 355, Article on Nicca. ISBN 978-81-208-1144-7.
19. Peter Harvey (2015). Steven M. Emmanuel (ed.). A Companion to Buddhist Philosophy. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 26–31. ISBN 978-1-119-14466-3.
20. Carol Anderson (2013). Pain and Its Ending: The Four Noble Truths in the Theravada Buddhist Canon. Routledge. pp. 1, 22 with note 4. ISBN 978-1-136-81332-0. (...) the three characteristics of samsara/sankhara (the realm of rebirth): anicca (impermance), dukkha (pain) and anatta (no-self).
21. Malcolm Huxter (2016). Healing the Heart and Mind with Mindfulness: Ancient Path, Present Moment. Routledge. p. 10. ISBN 978-1-317-50540-2. dukkha (unsatisfactoriness or suffering) (....) In the Introduction I wrote that dukkha is probably best understood as unsatisfactoriness.
22. Malcolm Huxter (2016). Healing the Heart and Mind with Mindfulness: Ancient Path, Present Moment. Routledge. pp. 1–10, Introduction. ISBN 978-1-317-50540-2.
23. Bhikkhu Bodhi (2005). In the Buddha's Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon. Simon and Schuster. pp. 67–8. ISBN 978-0-86171-491-9.
24. Anatta Buddhism, Encyclopædia Britannica (2013).
25. [a] Christmas Humphreys (2012). Exploring Buddhism. Routledge. pp. 42–3. ISBN 978-1-136-22877-3.
    [b] Brian Morris (2006). Religion and Anthropology: A Critical Introduction. Cambridge University Press. p. 51. ISBN 978-0-521-85241-8. (...) anatta is the doctrine of non-self, and is an extreme empiricist doctrine that holds that the notion of an unchanging permanent self is a fiction and has no reality. According to Buddhist doctrine, the individual person consists of five skandhas or heaps - the body, feelings, perceptions, impulses and consciousness. The belief in a self or soul, over these five skandhas, is illusory and the cause of suffering.
    [c] Richard Gombrich (2006). Theravada Buddhism. Routledge. p. 47. ISBN 978-1-134-90352-8. (...) Buddha's teaching that beings have no soul, no abiding essence. This 'no-soul doctrine' (anatta-vada) he expounded in his second sermon.
26. Richard Francis Gombrich; Cristina Anna Scherrer-Schaub (2008). Buddhist Studies. Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 209, for context see pp. 195–223. ISBN 978-81-208-3248-0.
27. Joaquín Pérez Remón (1980). Self and Non-self in Early Buddhism. Walter de Gruyter. pp. 218–222, 234. ISBN 978-90-279-7987-2.
28. Peter Harvey (2012). An Introduction to Buddhism: Teachings, History and Practices. Cambridge University Press. pp. 57–62. ISBN 978-0-521-85942-4.
29. Peter Harvey (2015). Steven M. Emmanuel (ed.). A Companion to Buddhist Philosophy. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 34–37. ISBN 978-1-119-14466-3.
30. "Selves & Not-self: The Buddhist Teaching on Anatta", by Thanissaro Bhikkhu. Access to Insight (Legacy Edition), 30 November 2013, http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/selvesnotself.html Archived 2013-02-04 at the Wayback Machine.
31. Bhikkhu, Thanissaro. "There is no self". Tricycle: The Buddhist Review. Archived from the original on 2018-08-19. Retrieved 2018-08-19.
32. Thepyanmongkol, Phra (2009). The Heart of Dhammakaya Meditation. Wat Luang Phor Sodh. p. 12. ISBN 9789748097534.
33. Wynne, Alexander (2009). "Early Evidence for the 'no self' doctrine?" (PDF). Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies: 63–64. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2017-06-02. Retrieved 2017-04-22.
34. Nārada, The Dhammapada (1978), pp. 224.
35. Bodhi, Bhikkhu (2003). The Connected Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Samyutta Nikaya. Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications. p. 1457. ISBN 978-0-86171-331-8.
36. Dhammapada Verses 277, 278 and 279.
37. Joaquín Pérez Remón (1980). Self and Non-self in Early Buddhism. Walter de Gruyter. pp. 210–225. ISBN 978-90-279-7987-2.

Sources

• Alexander, James (2019), "The State Is the Attempt to Strip Metaphor Out of Politics", in Kos, Eric S. (ed.), Michael Oakeshott on Authority, Governance, and the State, Springer
• Analayo (2013), Satipatthana. The Direct Path to Realization, Windhorse Publications
• Beckwith, Christopher I. (2015). Greek Buddha: Pyrrho's Encounter with Early Buddhism in Central Asia (PDF). Princeton University Press. ISBN 9781400866328.
• Monier-Williams, Monier (1899), A Sanskrit-English Dictionary (PDF), London: Oxford University Press
• Walsh, Maurice (1995), The Long Discourses of the Buddha. A Translation of the Dīgha Nikāya, Wisdom Publications