Explanation of The 3 characteristics : Anicca Dukkha Anatta.

The 3 characteristics : Anicca dukkha anatta.
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All that exists in the universe is subject to three characteristics:<O</O

• anicca. Everything is limited to a certain duration and, consequently, liable to disappear. <O</O
• dukkha. Everything is unsatisfactory. There is nothing that can be relied upon, there is nothing that can bring true happiness. <O</O
• anatta. Everything is deprived of a self. There is no self-inherent entity, nothing that can be controlled. <O</O

Even if we forget this when we are immersed into one moment of pleasure, each of us is aware that existence is filled with sufferings, worries, dissatisfactions of all kinds, and that these never stop. This characteristic (dukkha) which is obvious, is described in all schools of thought, in all religious systems.<O></O>
The notion of impermanence (anicca) is less obvious. Nevertheless, it is also often described in religious and philosophical systems.<O></O>
As to the characteristic of absence of a self (anatta), this is a completely new concept about which only Buddha talks. It is by far the subtlest and most essential point of all knowledge. It is the foundation of any understanding of the dhamma.<O</O
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Anicca <O</O

The aspect of impermanence

anicca is a pali word composed with two combined words: "nicca" and the privative particle "a". "nicca" implies the idea of permanence, of continuity. anicca means the absence of continuity, the absence of permanence. anicca is a universal law that is ascribable (can be applied) to all phenomena of the universe, indeed to all our sensual experiences.<O</O
Everything that occurs in the world, perceived by us, is inherently subject to decay, as soon as it appears. The aspect of change, the aspect of impermanence is vividly shown by the simple fact that phenomena appear. As soon as a phenomenon manifests, we are duly informed about its impermanent nature as before it occurred, it had not manifested yet and then it is here before us. We can ascertain that it just appeared. Therefore a change took place, and as a matter of fact, in particular when a phenomenon appears. Then, this phenomenon will have a limited duration, and it will inevitably disappear. As soon as it appears, a natural law compels it to ultimately vanish. This is valid for all of them, without exception.<O</O
anicca is a characteristic common to all phenomena, ascribable to all realities, which pertain to our conscious and tangible experiences.<O></O>
Thus, our consciousness undergoes ceaseless mutations and all our experiences, even in the occurrences of meditative, transcendental or else mystical attainments, are transitory by nature. If, by means of meditation, we succeeded in reaching transcendent, unitary stages, similar to the ones depicted to us in the spiritual literature, we could imagine to have seen "face to face" an eternal substratum, essence or substance. An immutable substance being not subject to the law of impermanence. Indeed, the simple fact to have reached this meditative stage or "experience", to have attained something, vividly shows that this object of experience is subject to change. Why is it so? Because prior to being experienced, this stage had not been reached yet. There is therefore something that began to manifest, which is a stage of merging, a stage of immersion of consciousness.<O</O
It is the result of a training into various spiritual exercises or variegated meditation techniques. Therefore, this is not yet the refuge we are searching, a refuge endowed with steadiness, with eternity. Indeed, this refuge doesn't exist.<O</O
At the depth, two types of trainings can be followed by us. Some of them belong to a category that we can conveniently name samatha while others belong to the category called vipassan&aacute;. vipassan&aacute; is a pali word that means direct inner sight or vision, superior vision indeed. Superior vision in the sense that it is superior to others, because it is direct by nature, truly speaking an insight into reality.<O</O
What is reality? Reality is a non-reversible fact, which is universally verified and that can be applied to all phenomena. That fact is of a threefold nature:<O</O
All phenomena that appeared will disappear.<O</O
All phenomena undergo the law of impermanence, the law of change, anicca.<O</O
All phenomena that appeared have a limited duration.<O</O
They have a specific duration but they do not outlast a short span of time. They always seem to have too long a duration when they dissatisfy us and we find their life span too short when they give us pleasure.<O></O>
By this way, they bear a property of dissatisfaction. As their very occurrence is already a source of dissatisfaction, we call this dukkha. Then, these phenomena cease to be, beyond the power of control of our might, they vanish. When their root-causes come to naught, phenomena disappear. This uncontrollable character of phenomena, we call it anatta. This is the absence of characteristics of an "in itself" inherent nature, the absence of control, the absence of directive.<O</O


The development of mindfulness

In order to develop vipassan&aacute;, we should do what Buddha has taught and named satipa††h&aacute;na bh&aacute;van&aacute;. bh&aacute;van&aacute; is training, mental cultivation; satipa††h&aacute;na means: sati, heedfulness, consciousness (here in the sense of "being heedful"), "patthana", "upatthana", means development, maturation. Hence satipa††h&aacute;na means development, maturation, foundation of mindfulness. bh&aacute;van&aacute;, that is the training into the development of mindfulness.<O</O
If we follow the advises given by Buddha, to the sake of developing mindfulness, developing heedfulness, at this very moment, naturally, in an unwanted and uncontrollable manner, vipassan&aacute; will also develop itself. As to vipassan&aacute;, there is nothing that can be done.<O</O
Some people claim teaching vipassan&aacute;. They teach us all kinds of exercises sometimes based on concentration, sometimes on a type of investigation or insight into what they call reality: investigation into the four elements, into the postures, into the sensations.<O</O
In reality, this is not vipassan&aacute;. They believe that vipassan&aacute; is something which ought to be done, to be "practised", that by doing such and such exercises, we are in vipassan&aacute; or else by doing other exercises, we are in samatha.<O</O
If Buddha himself had almost never used the word vipassan&aacute;, it is no accident. He instead used the word satipa††h&aacute;na. The discourse in connection with the instructions laid down on what is going on, what is performed in vipassan&aacute;, is not called "vipassan&aacute; sutta", anyway there is no sutta called so. It is called "satipa††h&aacute;na sutta", the discourse on the foundation of mindfulness. In this discourse, he doesn't talk about vipassan&aacute;. He just tells what a training into satipa††h&aacute;na means.<O></O>
Thus, what is interesting to us is not vipassan&aacute; but satipa††h&aacute;na instead. If we undertake a training, if we follow the instructions laid down by Buddha in order to develop mindfulness, consciousness and heedfulness, automatically, in a most uncontrollable and natural fashion, vipassan&aacute; will develop itself. vipassan&aacute; is merely the direct inner sight that is the fruit of mindfulness, of heedfulness. Here, what is meant is to turn our attention to reality<O</O
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http://www.dhammadana.org/en/dhamma/3_characteristics/anicca.htm<O></O>
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Dukkha<O</O

Suffering

Meaning

dukkha means sorrow, pain, suffering. It is a dominant characteristic in the world in which we live. According to the Buddha, the simple fact of living is marked by the characteristic of dukkha, which is suffering manifesting in all its forms. It can be the sorrow that one experiences in sadness, in the misery or the difficulties of this life. It can be also the sorrow that can be felt when one is saturated with pleasure, to the point the one the object of pleasure itself becomes disgusting and repulsive. It is the pain to be separated from those we love, but it is also that of having to endure the presence of those whom we do not love. It is the pain of not living in places where we would like to live, and also that of being forced to live in places where we do not want to live.<O></O>
In one way or the other, whether we want it or not, numerous situations in which we find ourselves are painful. Sometimes, because of this assertion, the Buddha's teachings are accused of being pessimistic, and sometimes it is said that the world is not so painful because there is hope. There is the hope of a better world, the hope to gain paradise, to create a happier world, to build an environment that is more human, more balanced. When people say that the world is not so unhappy because there is hope, the Buddha, in his teaching, tends to tell us that it is precisely because there is hope, which shows that the world is much more unhappy than we think it is.<O</O
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The cessation of suffering

Cessation rather than acquisition

According to Buddha, the most significant aspect is not the acquisition of happiness. The most significant point is to reach the end, the cessation, the extinction, the disappearance of sorrow. Besides, when he tells to us what the world is made of according to him, he says that it is made of dukkha, which is sorrow, pain. He tells us that there is, of course, a cause for this sorrow, and that because there are sorrow and pain in the world, there must also be the possibility of an end put to sorrow. In the same manner as it is because there is disease that there exists the cure. Because if there were no diseases there would be, of course, no cure.<O></O>
Thus he does not present to us happiness, eternal life, the life in divine worlds as being the alternative, the solution, the answer to the question of suffering. He has told us that the alternative is the end of suffering. In the same manner that the alternative to light is darkness; it is nothing else. For the Buddha, the alternative to suffering, is the cessation of suffering, and nothing else.<O></O>
For example, we know that the opposite of heat is not cold. What we call the "cold", is actually "less hot". When one opposes the "cold" to the "heat", it is a way to talk, a convention. It is like "large" and "small". In fact, "small" is not the opposite of "large", it is simply "less large", it is also a manner of speaking. When one says of a building: " This building is large", what is the opposite of a large building? Is it a small building? Of course not, since a "small" building simply means a "less large" building. A building that we think small will still be large for an insect.<O></O>
The opposite to the presence of a building, whether large or small, is the absence of the building. The alternative to heat, is the absence of heat, the absence of temperature (that is something that humans never experience, because on the Earth the coldest things still have a temperature).<O></O>


The solution

The alternative, the solution, with respect to the question of suffering, is its absence. It is as simple as that! For this reason the teaching of the Buddha, the original teaching, such as can be found in the texts of the therav&aacute;da, does not tell us so much about happiness, but much more about the cessation of pain