The following comment is by Saket:
We are quite familiar now with the meaning of Anicca, Dukkha, Anatta : “nothing in this world of 31 realms can be maintained to our wish (icca) in the long run. Hence if we attach to this world, we are bound to get suffering and hence this world is of no essence/no value.”
There is also a deeper meaning of Anicca, Dukkha, Anatta based on the understanding of “distorted sanna”.
Due to distorted sanna, the mind presents a false picture of the world around us. We think that the sights, sounds, smells, taste, touch, from the outside world are pleasurable. But actually our mind is playing a trick with us all the time!
In reality, the outside (as well as the inside) world is NOT what we think it is… This world is FAKE and is an ILLUSION in the sense that it DOES NOT offer what it claims to offer (happiness). Instead, it gives us only suffering! (because we attached to it and fell in the trap)
We have been cheated and deceived by our own mind all this time in the infinite Sansaric journey, falsely believing that this world of 31 realms has happiness to offer! So, we took this world to be something of value or having an essence. (see how our own mind is the biggest fraud!)
But in reality, the world is like a foam, like a bubble, like a mirage… having no essence, having no substance, having no value. Our mind gives “value” to things in this world due to the illusion created by distorted sanna!
This is the deeper meaning of Anicca, Dukkha, Anatta.
If this understanding truly sinks in our mind and our minds accept this TRUTH wholeheartedly, then all our defilements (anusaya, sanyojana, kilesa) will be removed forever!
This is the same as having “yathabhuta nana” (the knowledge of things AS THEY REALLY ARE) !!!
My note: Even though this comment could be in the forum that Saket posted on, I moved it here because it is related to “Distorted Saññā.” Saket is correct in his statements. But “yathābhuta ñāna” gets firmly established only when we can “see” (with wisdom or paññā) how that “distorted saññā” arises due to the gati. We cannot make that connection until we understand that “distorted saññā” arises in the mental body or gandhabba AND the role of the brain in that process.
- Those “gati” are in the gandhabba (specifically, associated with the hadaya vatthu) and have been cultivated over many lives to be born with that specific set of gati.