by Tony Flanagan

Created on: February 13, 2007

The Three Marks of Existence

The Buddha taught that all things in life have three inescapable factors underlying them. To understand each of them at an experiential level is to come to a true knowledge of reality. These three marks' or characteristics' are: impermanence (or anicca), suffering (or dukkha) and not-self (or anatta). We shall now look at each of these in turn.

Impermanence (Anicca):
One of the key aspects of the way Buddhism looks at the world is the recognition that all things are impermanent. Our own physical makeup, the world around us and in fact the whole universe is constantly changing nothing is static. We are born, we grow old and we die. From moment to moment our mental and physical processes are in constant movement. This may seem an obvious point but what the Buddha taught was that we tend to try to ignore this fact. We don't want to face the truth that we are subject to change that we grow old, that we die. What many of us do at a subtle level is to cling to some notion of permanency. It is the clinging to this notion of permanency that in fact contributes to our dissatisfaction and suffering in life.

For example, two people who are happily married see this marriage as permanent. But eventually, one partner will die leading the other bereft. What we tend to do is not think about it, almost smooth over such a discomforting prospect by putting it to one side. The Buddha's teaching urges us to wake up to reality, that life is ever-changing, unpredictable and uncertain. It is not a stable place however much we would like it to be.

Suffering (Dukkha):
The Buddha taught that if we look at the world around us as it really is we will see that there is a great deal of suffering and dissatisfaction. Even people who are wealthy and privileged just as he was in his childhood and early manhood are not completely happy. When we look at suffering and impermanence together we can see that any happiness that we have in life is prone to change it is the nature of things. We could be very happy for most of our lifetime but in the end we have to face the inevitability of physical decay and ultimately death. This suffering comes from craving for pleasure and a wish to avoid pain. It also comes from attempting to cling to things that are impermanent.

Not-Self (Anatta):
The first two marks of existence are relatively straightforward. The Buddha's teaching on not-self (or anatta) is much more challenging and requires us to look at who we are as individuals in a radically

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