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Three Marks
of Existence
Understanding
Ourselves
The
three marks of existence are crucial to the Buddhist understanding of
ourselves and the world around us. The first of these 'marks'
or 'characteristics' is anicca or impermanence. The second of these is
dukkha or suffering, which is also the first noble truth and the third
is anatta or not-self. To see the world in its true nature is to see
these three characteristics inherent within all things - that the world
is a place of suffering and dissatisfaction: that nothing stands still
and that, however hard you look, you will never find a permanent
essence, self or soul in anything!
Shocking?
Phew!
When we first come across these ideas they may seem a little shocking.
But when we start to apply them to our day to day experiences and to
the world at large, they are hard to refute. First, suffering in the
world is undeniable. If we're not suffering right at this minute, we
know that someone elsewhere definitely is. We also know that suffering
awaits us - sickness, loss of loved ones, our own death. Similarly,
it's also not that hard to see that everything is impermanent. Our
lives change in many ways from second to second. We can think of this
on a molecular level or in a more human way - we see ourselves growing
older, our moods change from day to day, our thoughts are constantly
pulled this way and that. Finally, and perhaps the most challenging, if
we look at ourselves carefully, it's hard to find what we might call a
permanent self - what we term the self changes from day to day -
sometimes minutely, sometimes dramatically.
Are
we the same person today that we were yesterday?
Are
we the same person this year as we were twenty years ago?
Challenging
stuff!
Not-Self
The
idea of not self or anatta is probably the most challenging
concept of all and it is quite unique to Buddhism. Other religions have
the idea of a soul but Buddhism doesn't. Instead, it sees the
individual as a combination of five factors known as khandhas. Each
person, therefore, is made up of consciousness, feelings, mental
formations (including volition), perception and corporeality (the
body). None of these, according to Buddhism, is permanent and nor,
either individually or collectively, do they constitute what might be
called a soul. Through meditation - particularly insight or vipassana
meditation - these three marks play an important role. The idea of
insight meditation is to see things as they really are and this means
realizing at an experiential rather than conceptual level that
suffering, impermanence and not-self underlie everything.
Paradoxically,
to realize this is to bring an end to suffering.
Not
surprisingly then, the three marks of are fundamental to Buddhist
thinking and practice.
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