These three basic facts of all existence are:,,,,,, If we contemplate even a minute sector of the vast range of life, we are faced with such a tremendous variety of lifes manifestations that it defeats description. And yet three basic statements can be made that are valid for all animate existence, from the microbe up to the creative mind of a human genius. These features common to all life were first found and formulated over 2500 years ago by the Buddha, who was rightly called Knower of the Worlds (loka-vidu). They are the Three Characteristics (ti-lakkha.na) of all that is conditioned, i.e., dependently arisen. These three basic facts of all existence are: Impermanence or Change (anicca) Suffering or Unsatisfactoriness (dukkha) Not-self or Insubstantiality (anattaa). The first and the third apply to inanimate existence as well, while the second (suffering) is, of course, only an experience of the animate. The inanimate, however, can be, and very often is, a cause of suffering for living beings: for instance, a falling stone may cause injury or loss of property may cause mental pain. In that sense, the three are common to all that is conditioned, even to what is below or beyond the normal range of human perception. Existence can be understood only if these three basic facts are comprehended, and this not only logically, but in confrontation with ones own experience. Insight-wisdom (vipassanaa-pa~n~naa) which is the ultimate liberating factor in Buddhism, consists just of this experience of the three characteristics applied to ones own bodily and mental processes, and deepened and matured in meditation. To see things as they really are means seeing them consistently in the light of the three characteristics. Ignorance of these three, or self-deception about them, is by itself a potent cause for suffering — by knitting, as it were, the net of false hopes, of unrealistic and harmful desires, of false ideologies, false values and aims of life, in which man is caught. Ignoring or distorting these three basic facts can only lead to frustration, disappointment, and despair. Hence, from a positive as well as a negative angle, this teaching on the Three Basic Facts of Existence is of such vital importance that it was thought desirable to add here more material to those brief expositions that had already appeared in this series. Beginning with the present volume on Impermanence, each of the Three Characteristics will receive separate treatment by different authors and from different angles, with a great variety of approach. Each of these three publications will be concluded by an essay of the late Venerable Ñanamoli Thera, in which all important canonical source material on the respective Characteristic is collected, systematized, and discussed. These tersely written articles merit close study and will be found very helpful in the analytical as well as meditative approach to the subject. Regrettably, the premature death of the venerable author prevented him from writing a fourth article planned by him, which was to deal with the interrelation of the Three Characteristics. These three articles of the Venerable Ñanamoli were originally written for the Encyclopaedia of Buddhism, and the first one, on Anicca, appeared in Volume I, p. 657ff., of that work. For kind permission to reproduce these articles, the Buddhist Publication Society is much obliged to the Editor-in-Chief of the Encyclopaedia, Dr. G. P. Malalasekera, and to the publishers, the Department of Cultural Affairs, Colombo. — Nyanaponika.
Posted on: Sun, 03 Aug 2014 20:22:07 +0000
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