ANICCA, DUKKHA, ANATTA

This is a very brief explanation about an extremely complex and wide subject.

       All things, mind (nama) and matter (rupa), have three common characteristics called, samannya lakkhana in Pali, they are, Anicca, Dukkha, Anatta.

Anicca means, impermanence or change.

Dukkha means, imperfection , suffering, unsatisfactoriness.

Anatta means, impersonal, not self.

Anicca

        Everything is made up of minute particles but these particles are neither permanent nor lasting, they're changing. Everything is either growing or decaying, arising or passing away. It's easy to see that plants and flowers grow up and die. Some trees are very old, even one or two thousand years but they will eventually die. Animals too have their life spans and must one day die but also non-animal things such as buildings must also crumble down and become ruined. Like the Pyramids, they are really old but when they were built, they were very straight and neat but now, quite ruined. We always have to fix and re-paint our buildings and houses. Our cars get worn out and rusty, so we have to repair them or buy a new one.

       We too are getting older every day, every hour, every minute, every second, every moment. When we are young children we want to be teenagers, but then we want to be older so we can earn money, drive a car and go out at night. When that happens it's OK for a while but then we start to look old and we want to be young again, the older we get, the more we want to be young again.

       Our minds also are changing. You don't think like a baby do you? Nor do you think the same way you did at five years or ten years. In fact our mind changes yearly, monthly, weekly, daily, hourly, even from moment to moment we can have a change of mind and not think the way we just did. This process is Anicca, change or impermanence.

Dukkha

       To have a body and mind means you must also have pains and problems. Getting what you dislike, not getting what you like, and losing the good things that you had, are all unsatisfactory, therefore, we suffer. Because everything is changing and we can't stop it, that too is dukkha. You see, we don't want to get old and wrinkled or fat and ugly. We want to stay young and strong and beautiful but we have no choice. Except, to follow the Noble Eightfold Path and attain to Nibbana, then we've got no more desire to be beautiful or rich, no more aversion to being old or ugly, and no more confusion about life and who or what we are, but we understand ourselves, just as we are now. Human beings always want to change things, we're never satisfied with things as they are. We seem to overlook the fact that everything is already changing, so all we have to do is be mindful of the reality of change and we can become free from it's effect on us. We can become ageless and deathless.

Anatta

        We are not self. Self is conceptual. Huh? What does that mean?

        Firstly, some examples. If I showed you just the wheel of a car and said this is a car, you wouldn't believe me, would you? If I said that the seat was the car, you wouldn't believe me, would you? A car is made up of parts, and no one part is the car but only when all the parts are together, we call it a car. At the movies, one frame isn't the movie, but only when all frames are together in sequence, we can call it a movie. If I cut off my finger or took out my eyeball and put it on the table and said that is myself, you wouldn't believe me, would you? So, no one part is myself but only when all the parts are together, we call it myself.

       If the car is wrecked, we don't call it a car anymore. If the movie film is destroyed or cut into pieces, we don't call it a movie anymore. If a body is dead, we don't call it a person any more. So, car, movie, person are just names for all the parts when they're together.

        If we look at our mind, we see that it's made up of parts too. Anger comes and goes, we are not always angry. Happiness comes and goes, we are not always happy. We are not anger, we are not fear, we are not pain or love but if we put them altogether, we call them, mind. If we put the parts of the body with the parts of the mind, we can call it self but really they are all just changing parts, not just one thing but many things all together. Self is just a word to describe this. There is not one permanent self but there are many changing processes of body and mind.

Related articles for further reading selected by the Course Organizer:

           (1) , The Concept of Dukkha, Venerable Dhammasami,, 1999,

           (2), An Understanding of Anicca, Venerable Dhammasami,, 1999,

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