three marks of existence

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

In the Pali tradition of the Theravada school, the three marks are:{{sfnp|Alexander|2019|p=36}}{{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}}{{sfn|Walsh|1995|p=30}}

• 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:Thich Nhat Hanh, The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching

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

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: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.{{Cite web |title=The Questions of the Nāga King Sāgara (3) | 84000 Reading Room |url=https://read.84000.co/translation/toh155.html}}

• 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)

{{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.[http://www.britannica.com/topic/anicca Anicca Buddhism], Encyclopædia Britannica (2013). 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.{{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}}{{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}} This is in contrast to nirvana, the reality that is nicca, or knows no change, decay or death.{{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}}

{{Main|Dukkha}}

Dukkha (Sanskrit: duhkha) means "unsatisfactory", commonly translated as "suffering", or "pain".{{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}}{{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).}}{{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.}} Mahasi Sayadaw calls it '[http://www.buddhanet.net/brahmaviharas/bvd063.htm 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).{{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}}{{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}} 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."

{{Main|Anatta}}

Anatta (Sanskrit: anatman) refers to there being no permanent essence in any thing or phenomena, including living beings.[http://www.britannica.com/topic/anatta Anatta Buddhism], Encyclopædia Britannica (2013).[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}}
[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.}}
[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.}}

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.{{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}} Thus, nirvana too is a state of without Self or anatta. 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.{{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}}

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.{{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}}{{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}} Some Buddhist traditions and scholars, however, interpret the anatta doctrine to be strictly in regard to the five aggregates rather than a universal truth."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}}.{{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}}{{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}} Religious studies scholar Alexander Wynne calls anattā a "not-self" teaching rather than a "no-self" teaching.{{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}}

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).Nārada, The Dhammapada (1978), pp. 224.{{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}} The teaching of three marks of existence in the Pali Canon is credited to the Buddha.Dhammapada Verses 277, 278 and 279.{{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}}

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

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