Knowra Three Marks of Existence Three Marks of Existence The Three Marks of Existence are impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and non-self, characteristics Buddhist teachings attribute to conditioned phenomena.
Impermanence : The principle that conditioned phenomena arise and change rather than remain fixed. It is the first mark: every conditioned thing changes.
Dependent origination : The Buddhist account of how phenomena arise through interdependent causes and conditions. It explains why conditioned things change and cannot stand independently.
Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta : A discourse in which the Buddha teaches the Four Noble Truths and the Middle Way. Its account of suffering and its cessation provides an early context for the marks.
Atman : In several Indian traditions, the eternal self or inner essence underlying personal identity. The non-self mark challenges the idea of an enduring personal essence.
Dukkha : A Buddhist concept encompassing suffering, dissatisfaction, and the instability of conditioned experience. It is the mark often translated as unsatisfactoriness.
Five aggregates : Five groups—form, feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness—used to analyze a person’s experience. They provide a traditional framework for examining impermanence, suffering, and non-self.
Anattalakkhana Sutta : A discourse in which the Buddha analyzes the five aggregates as non-self. It gives an early, detailed treatment of the non-self mark.
Eternalism : The view that a permanent self or reality exists independently of changing conditions. It conflicts with the marks’ account of conditioned existence as impermanent.
Anatta : The Buddhist teaching that no permanent, independent self can be found in experience. It is the mark that denies a lasting self within conditioned phenomena.
Clinging : Attachment to experiences, views, or identities as sources of lasting security or selfhood. The marks expose why clinging to unstable experience leads to dissatisfaction.
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