The Human Condition
The Three Universal Truths /
Three Marks of Conditioned Existence
1st Mark: Anicca (Impermanence)
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The first key concept you need to know is ‘Anicca’
The word literally means ‘impermanence’
It is the First Mark of Existence / Universal Truth
This means that everything is constantly changing
Nothing stays the same (nothing is permanent)
Everything is changing around you just now:
weather, light, table, chair, apple, Bennachie –
everything.
• This applies to relationships and conditions as well.
• See story of Nun Kisagotami (mustard seed story)
2nd Mark: Anatta (No Soul)
• The Second Mark of Existence / Universal Truth
is Anatta
• Anatta literally means ‘no soul’
• This is basically Anicca applied to people!
• If nothing is permanent, and everything changes,
then you also constantly change.
• There is no permanent ‘thing’, so there can be no
eternal / lasting soul or ‘self’
• Buddhists believe we are made up of five changing
‘bits’ / aggregates called the Five Skandhas.
• The skandhas constantly change, so we are
constantly changing.
• The only thing that stays the same is our ‘label’
• See Questions of King Milinda (Chariot story)
Sunyata (Emptiness) - Higher
• This is NOT a Mark of Existence, but is
related to the first two marks.
• This is Anatta and Anicca taken one stage
further
• Found in the Prajna-Paramita Sutras
• Sunyata is a Mahayana Buddhist concept
– you will not find it in the ‘strict/original’
Theravada Buddhism
• It states that every time you analyse
something (like you did with a person for
anatta) you find that no object / thing has
any inherent substance – it is ‘empty’.
Sunyata (Emptiness) – Higher [cont]
•Everything is always made up of smaller ‘bundles of
bits’ (like humans are made of the skhandas)
•Every named object amounts to the sum of its parts –
all an object is is a particular configuration of it’s parts.
•The name is just a label given to that particular
collection of changing pieces.
•If you analyse everything into small enough bits you
find that everything is empty – has no existence of it’s
own.
•Car = mechanical and electrical bits = made up of
smaller and smaller components = made up of basic
material = made up of atoms = made up of subatomic
particles = made up of ‘nothingness’!
If everything can reduce down to this nothingness,
or emptiness, then everything is essentially the
same, or linked together.
3rd Mark: Dukkha (Unsatisfactoriness)
• Third mark of existence is ‘Dukkha’
• It literally means ‘unsatisfactoriness’ or ‘suffering’
• Usual interpretation of Dukkha is suffering, but it is
‘more’ than that.
• It is the dissatisfaction with life – the good and
bad, the fact that things change, things failing to
live up to our expectations, etc.
• 3 Types of Suffering: Ordinary suffering, suffering
from change, and from conditioned states.
• Human failure to understand anicca means that
we have a misunderstanding of our ‘human
condition’ and live our lives ‘wrongly’, so we
‘suffer’
3rd Mark: Dukkha (cont)
• Not accepting that EVERYTHING changes = We expect /
hope for things to stay the same when they are good; we
worry they’ll never change when they are bad; we strive to
achieve goals that are ultimately meaningless  we are
ignorant to the truth of the world
• We are tied to the reality of samsara (the cycle of life, death
and rebirth) because of our failure to understand the fact
that not accepting anicca leads to dukkha, which in turn
stops us becoming enlightened, and therefore keeps us tied
to samsara!
• We are ‘tied’ to the Three Mental Poisons of Greed, Hatred,
and Ignorance which keep this cycle going.
• Understanding anicca and dissolving the Three Poisons is
the key to ridding ourselves of dukkha and becoming
enlightened
• See Dhammapada 147-156 (Ageing)
Quick Tasks
1. Write a SHORT paragraph to explain:
1. Anicca
2. Anatta
3. Dukkha
2. Explain briefly how the three marks of
existence are linked. Use a diagram to
illustrate your answer.
3. Higher: Explain the concept of Sunyata