by Dharmacharya Gurudas Sunyatananda

Created on: January 17, 2009

Unsatisfactoriness (suffering), impermanence and impersonality (emptiness) Buddha Sakyamuni concluded that these three inescapable factors or "marks" of existence were the common characteristics shared by all phenomena. Often referred to as "the Dharma Seals", Buddha taught that by bringing theses three factors into awareness, moment-to-moment (mindfulness), we achieve Wisdom the third of the three higher trainings the way out of the cyclic existence, called Samsara.

This fundamental idea represents a departure from the kinds of thinking that mark the more "religious" spiritual paths, and is an approach that is much more closely compatible to modern psychology. As a result, we can often find this approach to be a more effective way for a person to transform and heal their lives. In fact, this is one of the reasons that many of those who are still involved in the traditional Abrahamic religions begin to explore ways in which they can integrate some of the Buddhist ideology into their spiritual practice.

Let's look at these three inescapable factors of existence, and what they mean for us:

The Buddha taught that nothing found in the physical (phenomenal) world or the realm of psychological can bring lasting deep satisfaction. The word for this unsatisfactoriness in Sanskrit is dukkha, and is often translated as "suffering". Buddha understood that if one reflects deeply upon the truth of suffering or unsatisfactoriness of all phenomena, they could dispel the illusions (and delusions) they possessed about the world and of life.

Impermanence, called anicca in Sanskrit, refers to the awareness of the fact that all phenomena (including psychology and intelligence) are in a constant state of flux. It also teaches that all phenomena arise out of an ever-changing "cloud" of causes and conditions; thus all conditioned things eventually cease to exist.

And because nothing in the conditional or phenomenal world is permanent, Buddha understood that the notion of a soul or self was likewise an impermanent phenomenon and illusion. We call this anatta
or impersonality. Anatta pervades all of the phenomenal world, and includes an understanding that our dualistic impressions are delusional. We understand that the "person" we imagine as "me" is not an autonomous, integral entity. The seemingly individual self, or what we might call the ego, is more correctly thought of as a by-product of the five aggregates (form, sensation, perception, mental formations and consciousness).

This can

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