Anicca, dukkha, anatta

"Monks, whether or not there is the arising of Tathagatas, this property stands — this steadfastness of the Dhamma, this orderliness of the Dhamma: All processes are inconstant.

"The Tathagata directly awakens to that, breaks through to that. Directly awakening & breaking through to that, he declares it, teaches it, describes it, sets it forth. He reveals it, explains it, & makes it plain: All processes are inconstant.

"Whether or not there is the arising of Tathagatas, this property stands — this steadfastness of the Dhamma, this orderliness of the Dhamma: All processes are stressful.

"The Tathagata directly awakens to that, breaks through to that. Directly awakening & breaking through to that, he declares it, teaches it, describes it, sets it forth. He reveals it, explains it, & makes it plain: All processes are stressful.”—-AN 3.134

There are two main meanings to ‘dhamma,’ one is as a universal law, the other (more common) is the teaching. The uninstructed ordinary person experiences suffering without knowing it is suffering, or the release from it. The Buddhist practitioner becomes aware of the suffering in conditioned things, knows the way out of it and experiences freedom to a degree dependent on their practice.

So according to AN 3.134, “all processes are stressful” (dukkha), and this property stands regardless.
How can this property be personal suffering, given that the goal of practice is to end personal suffering? Something which “stands regardless” wouldn’t be able to cease, and there would be no escape from it.
Do you see the contradiction here?

Aha! :man_cartwheeling:

AN4.49:1.5: anattani, bhikkhave, attāti saññāvipallāso cittavipallāso diṭṭhivipallāso;
AN4.49:1.5: Taking not-self as self.

Thanks for that quote. Very helpful to understanding DN1.

The SN (especially SN 22 and SN 35) are more concerned with the logic of anicca-anatta-dukkha

The AN turns this into ‘perceptions’, i.e. meditation practices, where one puts the logic of the SN into practice.

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This recalls one of the exercises in recognizing impermanence in the Vism. The colour transition from a shoot to a leaf, to decline and death, that is birth/maturity/ageing, death. Due to the unwholesome roots, the untutored mind always prefers the mature stage (green leaf). The difference between the uninstructed and educated view is that the former sees what is immediate (the green leaf) and wrongly attributes continuity to that state assuming it will always be green, while the educated sees the present extrapolated into the future dissolution phase (green to neutral colours) and so experiences equanimity or dispassion. This also relates to the memory aspect of mindfulness, where what is known is applied to perceptions rather than an immediate mindless reaction (grasping).

“74. For that to begin with is pale pink; then in two or three days it becomes
dense red, again in two or three days it becomes dull red, next [brown,] the
colour of a tender [mango] shoot; next, the colour of a growing shoot; next, the
colour of pale leaves; next, the colour of dark green leaves. After it has become the
colour of dark green leaves, as it follows out the successive stages of such material
continuity, it eventually becomes withered foliage, and at the end of the year it
breaks loose from its stem and falls off.”—Vism XX 74

Incidentally people will have less suffering if they realize that coronavirus thrives in cold environments like the north of Italy or air-conditioned Singapore and cruise ships, whereas in countries like Indonesia and Cambodia where the minimum is above 20°Cs it is almost absent.

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The application of the term ‘characteristic’ (lakkhaṇa) to anicca, dukkha and anattā seems to be a late development. It’s not found anywhere in the Tipiṭaka other than in sutta titles and section headings.

The nearest you get to it is in AN 3.47, where “arising, vanishing and alteration while it persists” are denoted “characteristics that define the conditioned” (saṅkhata-lakkhaṇāni).

Conditioned

“Bhikkhus, there are these three characteristics that define the conditioned. What three? An arising is seen, a vanishing is seen, and its alteration while it persists is seen. These are the three characteristics that define the conditioned.

“Bhikkhus, there are these three characteristics that define the unconditioned. What three? No arising is seen, no vanishing is seen, and no alteration while it persists is seen. These are the three characteristics that define the unconditioned.”

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Wow! Fascinating point. :open_mouth:

So I guess that COVAD-19 is therefore a disease that afflicts the most voracious consumers in warming countries. :thinking:

Oddly, there’s a sense of balance here…indeed, the air is clearing over China.

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This is indeed very good point.

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SN35.94
“Mendicants, it’s just the six fields of contact
that lead the unrestrained to suffering.
Those who understand how to restrain them
live with faith as partner, uncorrupted.

When you’ve seen pleasant sights
and unpleasant ones, too,
get rid of desire for the pleasant,
without hating what you don’t like.

When you’ve heard sounds both liked and disliked,
don’t fall under the thrall of sounds you like,
get rid of hate for the unliked,
and don’t hurt your mind by thinking of what you don’t like.

When you’ve smelled a pleasant, fragrant scent,
and one that’s foul and unpleasant,
get rid of aversion for the unpleasant,
while not yielding to desire for the pleasant.

When you’ve enjoyed a sweet, delicious taste,
and sometimes those that are bitter,
don’t be attached to enjoying sweet tastes,
and don’t despise the bitter.

Don’t be intoxicated by a pleasant touch,
and don’t tremble at a painful touch.
Look with equanimity at the duality of pleasant and painful contacts,
without favoring or opposing anything.

People generally let their perceptions proliferate;
perceiving and proliferating, they are attracted.
When you’ve dispelled all thoughts of the lay life,
wander intent on renunciation.

When the mind is well developed like this regarding the six,
it doesn’t waver at contacts at all.
Mendicants, those who have mastered greed and hate
go beyond birth and death.”

But how to do this?

SN 35.1 / SN 35.4
The six interior/ exterior sense fields are impermanent, suffering, and not-self. When a noble disciple truly sees them like this, they become disillusioned and liberated.

SN 35.17 / SN 35.18
Beings are attached to the six interior/ exterior sense fields due to gratification, repelled due to drawbacks, and find escape because there is an escape.

SN 35.19 / SN 35.20
If you enjoy the six interior/ exterior sense fields, you enjoy suffering.

SN 35.23
The “all” consists of the six interior and exterior sense fields.

SN 35.33–42
The “all” consisting of the six interior and exterior sense fields is liable to be reborn, to age, etc.

SN 35.25
The “all” consisting of the six interior and exterior sense fields should be given up by understanding.

SN 35.32
The way to uproot all conceivings is to investigate the six sense fields as impermanent, etc.

SN 35.61
To end grasping, see how sense experience gives rise to feeling.

SN 35.62

To end grasping, investigate the six sense fields as impermanent, etc.

SN 35.84
The Buddha tells Ānanda that in the training of the noble one the “world” consisting of six sense experience is liable fall apart.

SN 35.107
The origin and ending of the world are explained in terms of sense experience giving rise to craving and suffering.

SN 35.91
Being stirred by craving is painful, so the Realized One lives unstirred, not identifying with any aspect of sense experience, or indeed, with the entire scope of the aggregates, elements, and senses.

SN 35.99
Develop meditative immersion so as to truly understand the process of sense experience.

SN 35.101
Let go of what is not yours: the process of sense experience. You wouldn’t be upset if someone took the grass and sticks from the monastery grounds, so why worry over the aggregates?

SN 35.150
The way suitable for realizing extinguishment is to contemplate the process of sense experience as impermanent, suffering, and not-self.

SN 35.158 / SN 35.159
Focusing properly on the interior/ exterior sense fields you see them as they are and become free.

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I believe this is an expression of utu niyama, “the fixedness of the law regarding all things,…or natural order that governs temperature, seasons and other physical events…” (Nyanatiloka). CO2 emissions have dropped and coronavirus will probably become an annual event, declining in summer and re-emerging in winter, causing permanent change in the habits of humans. It is incorrect to regard the earth or the cosmos as a passive bystander in this global warming, which is interfering with the support system for rebirth, which cannot be done.

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  1. be your own island

“Mendicants, form is impermanent.
“Rūpaṃ, bhikkhave, aniccaṃ.

What’s impermanent is suffering.
Yadaniccaṃ taṃ dukkhaṃ;

What’s suffering is not-self.
yaṃ dukkhaṃ tadanattā;

And what’s not-self should be truly seen with right understanding like this: ‘This is not mine, I am not this, this is not my self.’
yadanattā taṃ ‘netaṃ mama, nesohamasmi, na meso attā’ti evametaṃ yathābhūtaṃ sammappaññāya daṭṭhabbaṃ.

Seeing truly with right understanding like this, the mind becomes dispassionate and freed from defilements by not grasping.
Evametaṃ yathābhūtaṃ sammappaññāya passato cittaṃ virajjati vimuccati anupādāya āsavehi.

Feeling is impermanent …
Vedanā aniccā …

Perception …
saññā …

Choices …
saṅkhārā …

Consciousness is impermanent.
viññāṇaṃ aniccaṃ.

What’s impermanent is suffering.
Yadaniccaṃ taṃ dukkhaṃ;

What’s suffering is not-self.
yaṃ dukkhaṃ tadanattā;

And what’s not-self should be truly seen with right understanding like this: ‘This is not mine, I am not this, this is not my self.’
yadanattā taṃ ‘netaṃ mama, nesohamasmi, na meso attā’ti evametaṃ yathābhūtaṃ sammappaññāya daṭṭhabbaṃ.

Seeing truly with right understanding like this, the mind becomes dispassionate and freed from defilements by not grasping.
Evametaṃ yathābhūtaṃ sammappaññāya passato cittaṃ virajjati vimuccati anupādāya āsavehi.
SN22.45

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Hmmm , form is impermanent
But But by itself Not suffering .
Think again .

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I am wary of getting in to long circular debate about this. But as I see it, putting a hand in to the fire and ‘Suffering’ is one thing, and seeing the the ‘suffering’ inherent in the fire is something else.

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:slightly_smiling_face: or the suffering inherent in the hand :raised_hand_with_fingers_splayed:

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Lets be simple , suffering inherent in the form … ! ? If this stand then for an arahant still cannot escape it .

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That’s correct, until PariNibbana

But remember - they will not be reborn! So this is the last time to have to put up with it :smiley:
So the physical dart of suffering still exists (this is part of the ‘remainder’), but the mental dart is completely gone. Without the mental dart the physical sensations are much less acute and no longer distressing. However, there is still physical suffering. That is why, IMO, the buddha has said that, for one who has completed the spiritual work to the end, suicide in cases of unbearable mortal pain, doesn’t result in bad Kamma…

:slight_smile:

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This wasnt the point in the core teaching .

The king asked, “If a person has crossed over to the other shore, and will not be reborn hereafter does he still feel any painful sensation?”

Nāgasena replied, “Some he feels and some not.”

“Which painful sensation does he feel and which not?”

“He may feel bodily pain, but not mental pain.”

“What do you mean by the expression that he feels bodily pain but not mental pain?”

“He is liable to suffer bodily pain, because the body still exists, he is not liable to mental pain, because the mind has got rid of all evil, and is without any desire.”

The king said, “If a person who has crossed over to the other shore still cannot get rid of the bodily pain, then he has not attained the Path of nirvana.” Again the king said, “If a person who has attained the Path has no sense desire, and while his mind is in peace, yet bodily pain still exists, then what is the use of attaining nirvana? If a person has attained nirvana, why does he not die?”

“It is like the unripe fruit, we need not force it to ripen, but when it is ripe, we need not wait again.”

Nāgasena continued, “There is a thera by the name of Sariputra who has attained the Path. The following was said by Sariputra when he was alive: ‘I do not seek for death, I do not seek for birth; I abide my time, when my time comes, I shall go.’”

“Excellent, Nāgasena.”
T1670b 2.19

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Thanks very much for the Sutta Quote :pray: :slightly_smiling_face: :sunflower: