Dukkha, Anicca and Anatta

In the language of the Buddha, Pali, a dialect of Sanskrit that, acording to scholars, died out just a century or two after the lifetime of the Buddha, the Three Characteristics of Existence are dukkha, annica, and anatta.

Dukkha is commonly interpreted as "life is suffering" or "life is unsatisfactory." Literally, the term "dukkha" refers to a wheel having an eccentrically-mounted axle instead of a concentrically-mounted axle. So the Buddha was saying that the unenlightened life is out of whack, like a poorly mounted wheel, a wheel mounted on an axle that is not in the center of the wheel as it should be.

The concept of dukkha was easily understood by the ancient Chinese. They readily understood that "dukkha" meant out of touch with the Tao (Dow), the Great Way. By practicing the Buddhadharma, by following the middle way, dropping opinions, neither liking nor disliking, we bring our axle to the middle of the wheel where it belongs. A Buddha is in touch with the Tao, understanding that Buddhahood and the Tao are not two separate things.

Annica means "impermanence." The Buddha said that nothing is permanent, so don't cling to things, animals, or people. All things and all living beings are transient.

As venerable Ajahn Brahm says, when you get a phone call advising you that someone very dear to you has just been killed in an auto accident, you reply: "That's to be expected." It is no surprise when a body expires; to expire is its nature because it is impermanent.

Anatta means no self or more completely, no independent self. The Buddha taught that the belief in an independent self, one that somehow can be born into the human dharma realm only to exit from all dharma realms at some future time, is a delusion.

Our universe operates under the law of cause and effect, the law of ultimate justice. No one can escape this law. No one can enter into the human dharma realm, wreak havoc therein, and then leave all dharma realms. A mind that causes wars, a mind that murders, that rapes, that is filled with greed and acts without compassion for others is a mind that takes itself to the animal realms, the hungry ghost realms, and the hell realms.

No god sentences the evil doer - the evil doer sends himself or herself there. Think and act like a demon, become a demon. It's that simple. Just as thinking like a Buddha lifts one to Buddhahood, thinking like a demon works the same way.

We are not independent selves, separate and apart from everything else. That is the meaning of anatta. We are in the web of the six lower realms and cultivation of the Buddhadharma can lift us into the heavenly realms from which we can never fall.

However, as we experience anatta, absolutely no self, there simply is no self, just like it says, and thus there is no one to abide in the heavenly realms or anywhere else.

Don't ask me about that. Ask Ajahn Brahm. And he will tell you to enter into the jhanas and find out for yourself. Anatta is the ultimate truth, the one that sets us free.