Word comes from 'Du' ill fitting, 'cakka' wheel- refers to an ill fitting chariot wheel that will slow you down and make your journey uncomfortable
7 types but 3 main types are dukkha dukkha (ordinary suffering), viparinama dukkha (suffering produced by change and samkhara dukkha (suffering as conditioned states)
First taught at the Deer Park Sermon (known as 'setting in motion the wheel of the dharma)
Buddha's dying words- 'decay is inherent in all composite things, work out your own salvation with dilgence'
Fuelled by the 3 mental poisons
Story of Kisagotami
Buddha is the last physician sent to cure the ills of the world (dukkha)
To be free from dukkha we need to understand and accept the causes and become free from samsara
1 of 3
Anicca
Impermanence- everything is in a constant state of flux
Everything is dependent on certain conditions
Everything is interdependent and interlinked in a complex chain of cause, effect and conditions
Everything depends on something else for existence (even the people of the world and the stars- Buddha)
People crave permanence which leads to unhappiness (dukkha). Anicca heals dukkha. If people understood anicca, they would gain enlightenment, but deep meditation is required.
Life happens in moments, 1/60th of a second.
2 types of change- momentary (we cannot see) and gross (we can see e.g. the weather)
Anicca is caused by the 3 mental poisons e.g. ignorance that everything changes
Causal connections- one orderly moment produces the next
Nadisotoviya- 'flowing stream' life is continuously flowing
Continuity- momentary continuity or change occurs as a continuation of linked moments
2 of 3
Anatta
No fixed self/soul- nothing is permanent
Denial of any permanent part of you
Applies to animate and inanimate objects
We consist in a process (anicca) so there is no fixed soul as nothing stays the same
King Milinda's chariot/ Ship of Theseus
No soul passes between bodies, only energies (5 skandhas)
The 5 skandhas are form, sensations, mental formulations, perceptions and consciousness
At death the 5 skandhas fall apart and we get 5 new ones
Analogy of a candle lighting another- one flame caused the other, but it isn't the same flame
None of the skandhas are a soul as the 'self' is dependent on the skandhas
The body is just one set of skandhas, the end of one is not the end of them all
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