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 are fundamental to Buddhist thinking and practice.