Search results for: "The Three Characteristics"

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  2. When the Mind Is Still
     … This is why Ajaan Lee says that when you’re doing concentration, you’re basically fighting against the three characteristics. You’re taking what’s changeable and inconstant in your mind and you’re trying to make it more and more constant—because when it’s constant, then you can see other things arise and pass away. If you arise and pass away along … 
  3. The Meaning of Insight
     … Sometimes you hear that insight is seeing things in terms of the three characteristics. But then the three characteristics or, more properly, the three perceptions: What are they good for? If you simply say, “Well, everything is impermanent,” what does that tell you about what to do? You could take that observation and do all kinds of things with it. You could decide that … 
  4. Samvega
     … Remember that the suffering of the four noble truths and the suffering or stress in the three characteristics are two different things. The three characteristics apply to everything: That’s simply the way they are. Everything that’s fabricated has to be inconstant, stressful, and not-self. But the stress that comes from craving and clinging: That’s not necessary. So you sit with … 
  5. The World Is Swept Away
    The World Is Swept Away September 24, 2003 Every now and then you read a piece taking the Buddha to task on the first of the three characteristics. The thrust of the piece usually is: “What’s wrong with change? Change is a good thing. If it weren’t for change, we wouldn’t have happiness. There would be no art in the world … 
  6. Mindfulness + Discernment = Intelligence
     … It’s often said that when we practice mindfulness, we try to see things in terms of the three characteristics. Sometimes that’s true, but sometimes it’s not. Of all the wisdom teachings, the three characteristics are the ones, both in the Canon and in the teachings of the ajaans, that come with warnings, saying that you have to be very careful about … 
  7. Fighting Spirit
     … That’s the difference between the suffering in the three characteristics and suffering in the four noble truths. In the three characteristics, the simple fact that things change leads to stress. As long as you’re experiencing a body and experiencing the human world around that body, there’s going to be change, and there’s going to be stress coming from that. But … 
  8. The Dhamma Wheel
     … Here it’s important to note that suffering in the four noble truths is very different from the suffering in the three characteristics. In the three characteristics, the stress of things changing is built into the way the world is. It becomes suffering in the heart only when you cling to those things, and that’s the suffering of the four noble truths. The … 
  9. What to Tolerate, What Not
     … The first is the stress in the three characteristics. You’re not responsible for that. There’s nothing you can do about it. That’s just the way things are. But the stress that comes from craving: That’s the stress in the four noble truths, and that’s where you can really focus your attention and make a difference. It comes from the … 
  10. Testing Karma
     … That’s pushing the envelope on the second of the three characteristics. Then finally you learn to control things in a more intelligent way. You’re not becoming control freak where you force an impossible idea on things. People who have genuine control are the ones who’ve mastered the principle of cause and effect and have seen how you can effectively have an … 
  11. To the Far Shore
     … That’s where the teachings on what are called the three characteristics come in, because you’re trying to develop dispassion for the cause of suffering and some dispassion for the suffering itself. You might not think that you’re passionate for suffering. But as the Buddha said, the things we cling to, the act of clinging: That’s suffering. And the clinging is … 
  12. Dispassion & Delight
     … That’s because they were applying the three characteristics in the wrong way. One is seeing them as “characteristics.” The Buddha never uses that term when he talks about inconstancy, stress, and not-self. He calls them “perceptions.” And we know the nature of perceptions. As he says, they’re like mirages. A mirage gives, at best, only a partial view of what’s … 
  13. Long-Term Welfare
     … This is where the contemplation of the three characteristics comes in, thinking about things that are inconstant, stressful, and not self. As we were saying this afternoon, if you do this contemplation without a good, solid basis in concentration, it gets threatening, very depressing. It all becomes very negative. But if you’re coming from the point of view based on the strength of … 
  14. Not Getting What You Want
     … Years back, I was listening to a scholarly monk from Bangkok complain that a lot of vipassanā traditions teach that right view is the three characteristics. He said, “No! It’s the four noble truths.” At first, I thought he was being pedantic, but then on reflection I realized he’d had an important insight. If you think that the three characteristics are the … 
  15. Mange in the Mind
     … If you want to see the three characteristics, you can find them right here as well. Ajaan Maha Boowa’s analogy is the body as a city, with streets and buildings. The four-way intersections are the four noble truths; the three-way intersections, the three characteristics. Everything you need to know is right here. All the tools you need for the knowing, to … 
  16. Appropriate Attention
     … This is where the Buddha brings in what are usually called the three characteristics. In the Canon they call them perceptions. There’s the perception of inconstancy, the perception of stress, and perception of not self. They’re never called characteristics in the Canon. The sutta that we call the *Anatta-lakkhana Sutta: *That name there is not in the Canon; it was something … 
  17. Determination
     … There are so many people out there who say, “Meditation is simply a process of being with whatever comes up and being okay with it.” But if you look around at the assumptions that lie behind that idea, basically for them, meditation is a question of learning how to accept the three characteristics: Yes, things are inconstant, stressful, and not-self. You’ve just … 
  18. Three Parts of Right View
     … When something comes up in the course of the meditation, you can ask yourself, “Which duty is appropriate here?” Which type of truth are you confronting—something to be developed, something to be abandoned, or something to be comprehended? This issue of comprehending stress is really important, because there’s the stress in the three characteristics, and there’s stress in the four noble … 
  19. To Make Suffering Crumble
     … Then they would say, “Accept that.” Sometimes you even hear of the Buddhist teachings presented in that way, starting with the three characteristics—that things are inconstant, stressful, not-self, and you can’t do anything about that, so accept it. But the Buddha never taught that way. He started out, not with the three characteristics, but with the four noble truths, basically saying … 
  20. The Power of the Mind
     … He doesn’t say anything about the three characteristics or the opposite of the three characteristics with regard to the mind. He said that if you define yourself, you limit yourself. So, there’s a very good reason why he doesn’t define “mind.” The word citta, mind or heart, is closely related to ceteti, a verb that means to will, so that is … 
  21. Stop Shooting Yourself
     … There’s suffering in the three characteristics of inconstancy, stress, and not-self. That part can’t be avoided. It’s a necessary part of the world. The Buddha has you reflect on it to depersonalize the suffering, realizing that the nature of the body is such that it’s leaving you open to pain all the time. All kinds of things can happen … 
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