1 minute read
INSIGHT INTO 3 CHARACTERISTICS
INSIGHT INTO THE 3 CHARACTERISTICS
―'All created things are impermanent' 'All created things are suffering' 'All things are not-self' Seeing this with insight, One becomes disenchanted with suffering. This is the path to purity.‖
Advertisement
-Dhp 277-279
Another aspect of skillful view is seeing the 3 characteristics of existence (tilakkhana). As stated succinctly in the quote above, the Buddha taught that there are 3 aspects to our existence that we usually fail to notice. First, all of our experience is constantly changing. Nothing is permanent or eternal. Second, it is due to this change that we suffer. In a constant sea of change we find our lives unstable and unsatisfactory. We may get what we want or avoid that which we don‟t want, but it never lasts. We continually strive to arrange the conditions of our lives in particular, comforting ways. It is an arduous and endless task. Last, all things are not-self. That is, no matter how hard we look at our experience – our bodies, minds, and surroundings – we cannot find anything that comprises an enduring, unchanging self that we can completely master and control. None of the 5 aggregates of clinging (see page 60) can accurately be considered “mine”, “who I am”, or “my self.” The 3rd characteristic of not-self is one of the most difficult Buddhist concepts to grasp intellectually. The Buddha refused to answer the question of whether or not there is a self or soul. Rather, he continued to point out the fact that when we construct a sense of self or act as if we have a self or soul, we
suffer. As we practice the 3 trainings these key insights become more and more apparent and integrated into the psyche. Awareness of and skillfully working with insights allows us to let go of our resistance to the way things are and accept the true order of the world. This leads us home to being free from suffering. Central to the process of liberation is the relinquishment of the belief in the self as a permanent, discrete entity:
―…An enlightened one with the ending, fading out, cessation, renunciation, and relinquishment of all construing, all excogitation, all I-making and minemaking and obsession with conceit — is, through lack of clinging, liberated."
-MN 72
