Editing Three marks of existence

{{short description|Buddhist concept; consists of impermanence (anicca), suffering (dukkha), and non-self (anattā)}}
{{buddhism}}
In [[Buddhism]], the '''three marks of existence''' are three characteristics ([[Pali]]: ''tilakkhaṇa''; [[Sanskrit]]: त्रिलक्षण ''trilakṣaṇa'') of all existence and beings, namely ''[[Impermanence#Buddhism|anicca]]'' (impermanence), ''[[Duḥkha|dukkha]]'' (commonly translated as "suffering" or "cause of suffering", "unsatisfactory", "unease"),{{refn|group=note|The term is probably derived from ''duh-stha'', "standing unstable".{{sfn|Monier-Williams|1899|p=483, entry note:&nbsp;}}{{sfnp|Analayo|2013}}{{sfnp|Beckwith|2015|p=30}}{{sfnp|Alexander|2019|p=36}}}} and ''[[anattā]]'' (without a lasting essence).<ref>{{cite book|author=Steven Collins|title=Nirvana and Other Buddhist Felicities |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z2go_y5KYyoC |year=1998|publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-57054-1 |page=140}}</ref><ref name=gombrich47>{{cite book|author=Richard Gombrich|title=Theravada Buddhism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jZyJAgAAQBAJ|year=2006|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-90352-8|page=47 |quote=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.}}</ref><ref name=buswelllopez42>{{cite book|author1=Robert E. Buswell Jr.|author2=Donald S. Lopez Jr.|title=The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DXN2AAAAQBAJ|year=2013|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-1-4008-4805-8|pages=42–43, 47, 581}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Carl Olson|title=The Different Paths of Buddhism: A Narrative-Historical Introduction|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QRp-AixBLKUC |year=2005|publisher=Rutgers University Press |isbn=978-0-8135-3778-8 |pages=63–4}}</ref> 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.<ref name=":1">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.</ref>

=== Three marks ===
In the [[Pali]] tradition of the [[Theravada]] school, the three marks are:{{sfnp|Alexander|2019|p=36}}<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{cite book |last=Hahn |first=Thich Nhat |title=The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching |location=New York |publisher=Broadway Books |date=1999 |page=22}}</ref>{{sfn|Walsh|1995|p=30}}
* ''sabbe saṅkhārā aniccā'' – all ''[[saṅkhāra]]s'' (conditioned things) are impermanent
* ''sabbe saṅkhārā dukkhā'' – all ''saṅkhāras'' are unsatisfactory, imperfect, unstable
* ''sabbe dhammā anattā'' – all ''[[dharma#Buddhism|dharmas]]'' (conditioned or unconditioned things) have no unchanging self or soul
The northern Buddhist Sarvāstivāda tradition meanwhile has the following in their ''Samyukta [[Āgama (Buddhism)|Agama]]'':<ref name=":1" /><ref>Thich Nhat Hanh, ''The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching''</ref>
* All conditioned things are impermanent (''sarvasaṃskārā anityāḥ'')
* All dharmas are non-self (''sarvadharmā anātmānaḥ)''
* Nirvāṇa is calm (''śāntaṃ nirvāṇam'')

=== Four marks ===
In the ''[[Ekottara Agama|Ekottarika-āgama]]'' and in [[Mahayana]] sources like the ''[[Yogacarabhumi-sastra|Yogācārabhūmi-Śāstra]]'' and ''The Questions of the Nāga King Sāgara'' ''([[Sāgaranāgarājaparipṛcchā]])'' however, four characteristics or “[[Four Dharma Seals|four seals of the Dharma]]” (Sanskrit: ''dharmoddāna-catuṣṭayaṃ'' or ''catvāri dharmapadāni'', Chinese: 四法印) are described instead of three:<ref name=":1" /><ref>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.</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The Questions of the Nāga King Sāgara (3) &#124; 84000 Reading Room |url=https://read.84000.co/translation/toh155.html}}</ref>
* 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|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.<ref>[http://www.britannica.com/topic/anicca Anicca Buddhism], Encyclopædia Britannica (2013).</ref> Human life embodies this flux in the aging process and the cycle of repeated birth and death ([[Saṃsāra (Buddhism)|Samsara]]); nothing lasts, and everything decays. This is applicable to all beings and their environs, including beings who are [[Rebirth (Buddhism)|reborn]] in [[Deva (Buddhism)|deva]] ([[deity|god]]) and [[naraka]] (hell) realms.<ref name=damienkeown32>{{cite book|author=Damien Keown |title=Buddhism: A Very Short Introduction |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_QXX0Uq29aoC |year=2013|publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-966383-5 |pages=32–8}}</ref><ref name="Harvey2012p46">{{cite book|author=Peter Harvey|title=An Introduction to Buddhism: Teachings, History and Practices|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u0sg9LV_rEgC|year=2012|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-85942-4|pages=32–33, 38–39, 46–49}}</ref> This is in contrast to [[nirvana]], the reality that is ''nicca'', or knows no change, decay or death.<ref name="DavidsStede1921p355">{{cite book|author1=Thomas William Rhys Davids |author2=William Stede |title=Pali-EnC |year=1921 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=978-81-208-1144-7 |pages=355, Article on ''Nicca''}}</ref>

===Dukkha===
{{Main|Dukkha}}
''[[Dukkha]]'' (Sanskrit: ''duhkha'') means "unsatisfactory", commonly translated as "suffering", or "pain".<ref name=peterharvey26>{{cite book|author=Peter Harvey|editor=Steven M. Emmanuel|title=A Companion to Buddhist Philosophy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P_lmCgAAQBAJ|year=2015|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-1-119-14466-3|pages=26–31}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Carol Anderson|title=Pain and Its Ending: The Four Noble Truths in the Theravada Buddhist Canon|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ASlTAQAAQBAJ|year=2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-136-81332-0|pages=1, 22 with note 4 |quote=(...) the three characteristics of samsara/sankhara (the realm of rebirth): anicca (impermance), dukkha (pain) and anatta (no-self).}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Malcolm Huxter|title=Healing the Heart and Mind with Mindfulness: Ancient Path, Present Moment|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n2qFCwAAQBAJ|year=2016|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-50540-2|page=10 |quote=dukkha (unsatisfactoriness or suffering) (....) In the Introduction I wrote that dukkha is probably best understood as unsatisfactoriness.}}</ref> [[Mahasi Sayadaw]] calls it '[http://www.buddhanet.net/brahmaviharas/bvd063.htm unmanagable, uncontrollable]'.

As the [[Four Noble Truths|First Noble Truth]], ''dukkha'' is explicated as the physical and mental dissatisfaction of changing conditions as in [[Rebirth (Buddhism)|birth]], [[Jarāmaraṇa|aging]], [[Byādhi (Buddhism)|illness]], [[Jarāmaraṇa|death]]; getting what one wishes to avoid or not getting what one wants; and "in short, the five aggregates of clinging and grasping" (''[[skandha]]'').<ref name=peterharvey26/><ref>{{cite book|author=Malcolm Huxter|title=Healing the Heart and Mind with Mindfulness: Ancient Path, Present Moment|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n2qFCwAAQBAJ|year=2016|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-50540-2|pages=1–10, Introduction}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Bhikkhu Bodhi |title=In the Buddha's Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=11X1h60Qc0IC |year=2005|publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-0-86171-491-9 |pages=67–8}}</ref> 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'' ([[Pali Canon|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|Anatta}}
''[[Anatta]]'' (Sanskrit: ''anatman'') refers to there being no permanent essence in any thing or phenomena, including living beings.<ref name=britannicaanatta>[http://www.britannica.com/topic/anatta Anatta Buddhism], Encyclopædia Britannica (2013).</ref><ref>[a] {{cite book|author=Christmas Humphreys|title=Exploring Buddhism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V3rYtmCZEIEC |year=2012|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-136-22877-3 |pages=42–3}}<br>[b] {{cite book|author=Brian Morris |title=Religion and Anthropology: A Critical Introduction |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PguGB_uEQh4C&pg=PA51 |year=2006|publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-85241-8|page=51 |quote=(...) 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.}}<br>[c] {{cite book|author=Richard Gombrich|title=Theravada Buddhism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jZyJAgAAQBAJ|year=2006|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-90352-8|page=47 |quote=(...) Buddha's teaching that beings have no soul, no abiding essence. This 'no-soul doctrine' (anatta-vada) he expounded in his second sermon.}}</ref>

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.<ref name=Gombrich2008p209>{{cite book|author1=Richard Francis Gombrich|author2=Cristina Anna Scherrer-Schaub|title=Buddhist Studies|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U7_Rea05eAMC |year=2008|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass|isbn=978-81-208-3248-0|pages=209, for context see pp. 195–223}}</ref> Thus, ''nirvana'' too is a state of without Self or ''anatta''.<ref name=Gombrich2008p209/> 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 [[Duḥkha|''dukkha'']].<ref>{{cite book|author=Joaquín Pérez Remón |title=Self and Non-self in Early Buddhism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OQ6svBmxAhEC |year=1980|publisher=Walter de Gruyter |isbn=978-90-279-7987-2 |pages=218–222, 234}}</ref>

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''.<ref>{{cite book|author=Peter Harvey|title=An Introduction to Buddhism: Teachings, History and Practices|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u0sg9LV_rEgC|year=2012|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-85942-4|pages=57–62}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Peter Harvey| editor=Steven M. Emmanuel|title=A Companion to Buddhist Philosophy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P_lmCgAAQBAJ|year=2015|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-1-119-14466-3|pages=34–37}}</ref> Some Buddhist traditions and scholars, however, interpret the ''anatta'' doctrine to be strictly in regard to the [[Five Aggregates|five aggregates]] rather than a universal truth.<ref name="Selves">"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 {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130204143026/http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/selvesnotself.html|date=2013-02-04}}.</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://tricycle.org/magazine/there-no-self/|title=There is no self.|last=Bhikkhu|first=Thanissaro|work=Tricycle: The Buddhist Review|access-date=2018-08-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180819114904/https://tricycle.org/magazine/there-no-self/|archive-date=2018-08-19|url-status=live|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=juEsJjocNJoC&q=Some+translate+the+phrase+sabbe+dhamma+literally+as+%22all+phenomena%22+(both+compound+and+non-compound).+This+is+not+true.+According+to+Lord+Buddha's+Teaching+in+the+Dhammapada+Pali+text,+as+interpreted+by+the+original+arahant+commentators+and+by+the+most+recent+translators+(Carter+and+Palihawadana+1987)+2,+the+words+sabbe+dhamma|title=The Heart of Dhammakaya Meditation|last=Thepyanmongkol|first=Phra|date=2009|publisher=Wat Luang Phor Sodh|isbn=9789748097534|pages=12|language=en}}</ref> Religious studies scholar Alexander Wynne calls ''anattā'' a "not-self" teaching rather than a "no-self" teaching.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Wynne|first=Alexander|date=2009|title=Early Evidence for the 'no self' doctrine?|url=http://ocbs.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/awynne2009atijbs.pdf|url-status=live|journal=Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies|pages=63–64|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170602145336/http://ocbs.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/awynne2009atijbs.pdf|archive-date=2017-06-02|access-date=2017-04-22}}</ref>

==Application==
In Buddhism, ignorance ([[Avidyā (Buddhism)|''avidyā'']], or [[Moha (Buddhism)|''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 [[Vipassanā|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'').<ref>Nārada, The Dhammapada (1978), pp. 224.</ref><ref>{{cite book|first=Bhikkhu|last=Bodhi|year=2003|title=The Connected Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Samyutta Nikaya|page=1457|publisher=Wisdom Publications|location=Somerville, MA|isbn=978-0-86171-331-8}}</ref> The teaching of three marks of existence in the Pali Canon is credited to the Buddha.<ref name=Gombrich2008p209/><ref>Dhammapada Verses 277, 278 and 279.</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Joaquín Pérez Remón |title=Self and Non-self in Early Buddhism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OQ6svBmxAhEC |year=1980|publisher=Walter de Gruyter |isbn=978-90-279-7987-2 |pages=210–225}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Ātman (Buddhism)|Ātman]]
* [[Existentialism]]
* [[Four Dharma Seals]]
* [[Index of Buddhism-related articles]]
* [[Lakshana]]
* [[Secular Buddhism]]
* [[Similarities between Pyrrhonism and Buddhism]]
* [[Dharmamudrā]]

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=note|2}}

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

===Sources===
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{{refend}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Three Marks Of Existence}}
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