Three Marks of Existence

Question 1

What are the three marks of existence?

Answer 1

1. Suffering (Dukkha)
2. Impermanence (Anicca)
3. No fixed ‘self’ (Anatta)

Question 2

What does anicca mean?

Answer 2

Impermanence. Everything is constantly changing.

Question 3

Give the three ways that anicca affects the world.

Answer 3

1. All living things (grow, mature and then die).
2. Non-living things (decay over time).
3. Our minds change.

Question 4

How are anicca and dukkha interconnected?

Answer 4

We suffer because we do not want things to change and try to hold on to the good times. Accepting change means that we will suffer less.

Question 5

What does anatta mean?

Answer 5

The self is not fixed or permanent.

Question 6

What are the five aggregates?

Answer 6

1. Form (our body shape)
2. Sensation (our feelings)
3. Perception (our recognition of things around us)
4. Mental formations (our thoughts)
5. Consciousness (our awareness of who we are)

Question 7

What story is used to illustrate the concept of anatta?

Answer 7

Nagasena’s analogy of the chariot

Question 8

Give a brief summary of the analogy of the chariot.

Answer 8

A chariot is made up of many parts which put together make a useful mode of transport. It is only a chariot for the moment but these parts may becomes other things. In the same way our idea of ‘self’ is a combination of the 5 aggregates but is ever changing.

Question 9

If you can recognise that you are a part of the whole universe then Buddhists say that you are…

Answer 9

… ‘at one with everything’.

Question 10

What are the three types of Dukkha?

Answer 10

1. Ordinary pain and suffering
2. Change
3. Attachment/existence

Question 11

Explain ordinary pain and suffering as a form of dukkha.

Answer 11

Both physical and emotional pain.

Question 12

Explain change as a form a Dukkha.

Answer 12

Inability to accept change. People climb to pleasurable experiences and feel sad when they pass, and they cannot accept the truth of impermanence.

Question 13

Explain attachment/existence as a form of Dukkha.

Answer 13

Described as background suffering. It is the profound unsatisfactoriness of existence, caused simply by existence.

Question 14

Give a brief outline of the parable of the mustard seed and Kisa Gotami. (Anicca)

Answer 14

Kisa Gotami is a mother who learns to accept that change, loss and death are inevitable and universal. Kisa refused to believe that her son was dead and went to the Buddha to ask him to bring her son back to life. He told Kisa to go around the village asking for a mustard seed from a household that has never experienced death. She couldn’t find a household that had never experienced death.

Question 15

How many states of suffering are there?

Answer 15

Seven (4 physical and 3 mental)

Question 16

What are the 4 physical states of suffering?

Answer 16

1. Birth
2. Old age
3. Sickness
4. Death

Question 17

What are the 3 mental states of suffering?

Answer 17

1. Separation from something/someone you love.
2. Contact with something/someone you dislike.
3. Not being able to achieve your desires.

Question 18

Give a teaching about the seven sates of suffering.

Answer 18

‘what I teach is suffering and the cessation of suffering.’ ~ Buddha