The Three Marks of Existence

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  • Created by: mariam26
  • Created on: 22-12-20 14:16
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  • The Three Marks of Existence
    • Anicca
      • Anicca means impermanence
        • Nothing in life is permanent and as everything is always changing Liberation is possible
      • Mark of impermanence has two aspects
        • 1) Gross: when we pay attention it becomes clear that everything arises and passes away (e.g. death)
        • 2) Subtle: the things that are there before we're born and die - nothing is static
      • The Buddhist ideal is to live without craving (tanha) and attachment.
        • Anicca helps us to do so
        • If we realise that nothing stays the same then there is a lesser reason to hold onto it
    • Dukkha
      • Dukkha can be translated as suffering, unsatisfactoriness, unease, anguish
      • Buddha taught there are 3 different categories of Dukkha
        • 1) Suffering/Pain (Dukkha): physical, emotional + mental pain
        • 2) Change (Viparinama): pain or frustration caused by anicca
        • 3) Conditioned Experience (Samkarha): suffering caused the realisation we are dependent on things
      • There are sufferings that are unavoidable - BIRTH, SICKNESS, OLD AGE + DEATH
      • Concept of suffering can be illustrated by the Mustard Seed Parable
        • The parable teaches that the Buddha will save the dead child of a woman who can retrieve a mustard seed from a house that has not experience grief.
    • Anatta
      • Anatta is the doctrine that there is no permanent self
        • The Buddha doesn't claim that there completely/definitely isn't a self, but that the self that we identify with is not fixed
      • Individuals are finite products of the 5 Skandhas
        • 1) Form
        • 2) Sensation
        • 3) Perception
        • 4) Mental Formation
        • 5) Consciousness
      • Buddha's rejection of Eternalism and Nihilism
        • Scholar Sri Dhammananda says
          • Buddha rejected Eternalism because things change and continue to do so
          • Buddha rejected Nihilistic views based they are based on incomplete understanding of reality
          • Buddhism is the middle way between Eternalism and Nihilism
      • King Milinda's Questions and Chariot Analogy can be used to illustrate Anatta
    • Buddha taught that all things in life are linked by three marks
      • Buddhists argue that all life is subject to these marks of existence - especially sentient beings
      • These marks are all interlinked and interdependent on one another as a part of samsaric existence
        • We must take these three factors into account if we are able to realise enlightenment
  • Scholar Sri Dhammananda says
    • Buddha rejected Eternalism because things change and continue to do so
    • Buddha rejected Nihilistic views based they are based on incomplete understanding of reality
    • Buddhism is the middle way between Eternalism and Nihilism

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