The 3 Lakshanas

Question 1

Why are they important:

Answer 1

Existence can only be understood if these facts are comprehended, logically and in confrontation with experience. All things are affected by them, and it means we can see things as they really are. They’re a way to explore yourself and the world. They come from observation, which is important to Buddhism. They show that it can get better, and forms a basis for other teachings. We all understand the world subjectively, but Buddhism tries to understand it objectively through them.

Question 2

Dukkha:

Answer 2

Many translations - suffering, stress, pain, frustration, unsatisfactoriness, difficult to endure. It’s a condition of existence, fundamental to life, There is a light side as well, sukha, but it isn’t focused on because it’s not an issue like dukkha. Equally, there is no true happiness because dukkha touches everything in some way - links to anicca. We suffer because we get attached to things and then they change

Question 3

Anicca:

Answer 3

Impermanence, change, the fact that nothing stays the same, the constant state of flux. It can be good - when we make a friend and the relationship grows, and bad - when we drift apart. It is something to be experienced through meditation, not just understood intellectually. Only Nibbana isn’t subject to change, but it can be debated that it’s not a ‘thing’ and/or is outside existence.

Question 4

Anatta:

Answer 4

Often misunderstood as ‘we don’t exist’ but it’s not that simple - it is that things cannot be explained as groups of other things, but as a set of factors upon which something is dependent for existence. We are a process of materials rather than a single isolated product, an identity in process. It is not no-self but not-self. Nothing is unchanging, so there is no constant self, no atman. It’s a materialistic view and is unique among other religions. The metaphysical self is rejected but the empirical one remains, as a way of referencing the factors that make us - it’s a practical device, furthering the concept of understanding through experience. The accepted constituents of a person are the 5 skandhas.