The Three Lakshanas

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  • Created by: Gem-Short
  • Created on: 18-09-17 09:36
What are the Three Lakshanas?
The Three Lakshanas are dukkha (suffering), anicca (non-self) and anatta (impermanence)
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What do the Three Lakshanas allow a person to do?
They allow a person to see the true nature of reality
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What is dukkha?
Dukkha means suffering.Dukkha is the human condition and the first of the Four Noble Truths. It means that no happiness is permanent and all happiness is tainted by dukkha. It is a fundamental philosophical concept which requires a lot of explanation
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What is anicca?
Anicca means impermanence; that there is a chain of cause and effect that everything is subject to. An example of the transcience of all things is a flower, which changes and decays. The idea of anicca relates to Heraclitus' theory of flux
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What is paticcasamuppada?
Paticcasamuppada is the idea that all things are in a causal chain. Everything exists because it has been caused by something else, and everything is interconnected and codependent.
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What is Heraclitus' theory of flux?
'You cannot stand in the same river twice' as everything is always changing, even if we don't realise it
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What is anatta?
Anatta means non-self. It is the view that there is nothing about the person that exists eternally without change. The self is dependent on the five skandhas. There is no fixed self, but a person is constantly in flux.
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What are the five skandhas?
Body, sensations, perceptions, mental formations and consciousness.
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What is the flame analogy?
It is used to describe rebirth. When one flame lights another, it takes a part of the original flame but the two aren't the same
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What is the rope analogy?
There are many different threads in a rope which connect together but no rope has the same threads at the start and end
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What are the Questions of King Milinda/Milindapanha?
They are used to describe the idea of anatta. Nagasena engages in dialogue with King Milinda and explains that names are designed to refer to a thing, but the name isn't the theme itself
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What did Nagasena say to the King?
'It is on account of the various components of my being that I am known by the generally understood term, the practical designation, Nagasena'
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Quote from Sakka after the Buddha passed away on impermanence
'Impermanent are all component things. They arise and cease, that is their nature. They come into being and pass away. Release from them is bliss supreme'
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Card 2

Front

What do the Three Lakshanas allow a person to do?

Back

They allow a person to see the true nature of reality

Card 3

Front

What is dukkha?

Back

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Card 4

Front

What is anicca?

Back

Preview of the front of card 4

Card 5

Front

What is paticcasamuppada?

Back

Preview of the front of card 5
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