3.1.7 The Three Marks of Existence Flashcards
What are the Three Marks of Existence?
The Buddha taught that life has three characteristics - the Three Marks of Existence.
* Dukkha
* Anicca
* Anatta
What is Dukkha? (5 main ideas/points)
Suffering or dissatisfaction/ unsatisfactoriness. It is the idea that life is unsatisfactory; things don’t always go the way we want them to - things go wrong. We cannot experience lasting happiness.
What were the 8 states of suffering the Buddha identified?
- birth
- old age
- sickness
- death
- sorrow
- despair
- contact with unpleasant things
- not getting what one wishes for
How many forms does Dukkha come in?
3
What are the 3 forms of Dukkha?
- The Suffering of Suffering (suffering caused by suffering)
- The Suffering of Change
- The Suffering of Conditioning
What is the suffering of suffering with 2 examples? (4 bullet points)
- The suffering of suffering is the Dukkha of physical and emotional pain and suffering - ordinary suffering.
- This arises as a response to unpleasant experiences - it’s not the thing itself which causes suffering, it is our response.
- Suffering wouldn’t occur if we acknowledged the pain or unpleasantness.
- It refers to the unavoidable sufferings in life, e.g, arguing with a friend, failing an exam etc.
What is the suffering of change with 2 examples?
The suffering of change - we like things how they are and don’t want them to change, when they do we feel a sense of loss or unhappiness as we want things to be as they were, e.g. getting older, the death of a loved one etc.
What is the suffering of conditioning with 2 examples? (5 bullet points)
- The Suffering of Conditioning - undesirable sufferings of life of which you have no control.
- This is the background dissatisfaction we have with life.
- A great deal of sufferings in life come from your own actions - your actions will have an affect in the future.
- This is karma - the law of cause and effect.
- E.g. anger, pride can result in the suffering of conditioning.
What is Anicca? (simple)
Impermanence, the idea that everything changes.
What ways can Anicca be thought of affecting the world?(3)
- It affects living things, e.g, birth => growth => decay => death. Imagine a small seed growing into a giant redwood tree.
- It affects non-living things, e.g. an iron nail left out in the rain will rust.
- It affects our minds. Our thoughts, feelings, morals, longings, and ideals change frequently throughout our lives.
How do Anicca and Dukkha relate to each other? (4)
- People often expect things not to change, even though things change all the time.
- The Buddha believed that this is one of the reasons people suffer. He taught that when people expect things to remain unchanged, they become attached.
- Therefore when things do change (anicca) people experience suffering (dukkha).
- Buddhists believe that accepting all things change will lead to less suffering. For Buddhists, the ultimate goal is to break the cycle of samsara and achieve nibbana, a permanent state of no suffering.
What does the story of Kisa Gotami, and her son who passed away, teach? (6 bullet points)
- Death and suffering are common to all.
- And nothing stays forever - even suffering.
- So she will never forget her son (who became ill and died),
- but by realising everyone has experienced death and grief in their life (which is shown by no one giving her a mustard seed for the Buddha to create a medicine as they had all lost a loved one in their family)
- she is shown that she will be able to live on as everyone else has been able to.
- After the experience Gotami became a follower of the Buddha and an Arhat.
What is the idea of Anatta and how does it link to Anicca? (3 bullet points)
- Anatta is the idea that there is no permanent self.
- According to the idea of anicca, all things change and as such we cannot have a fixed or permanent identity.
- You are not exactly the same as you were a minute ago - some cells in your body have died and have been replaced by new ones; you have come to understand new ideas ….
Did the Buddha teach that we don’t exist?
No, he taught that we don’t exist in the way we think we do, as a fixed self. There is nothing fixed about you - you do not remain the same.
What idea did the Buddha explain with the ‘Story of Nagasena and the Chariot’ and where is it from?
- The term “me” or “I” or “Jessica”, is simply a term which we use to refer to the collection of separate parts.
- The combination of all these parts together does not make a fixed being that is “me” or “I” or “Jessica”.
- The Story of Nagasena and the Chariot is from the Milinda Panha.
