Reply To: The Mind Exists for Separation

#50010
Lal
Keymaster

Dawson: “If someone had only a couple of minutes to live and their dying wish was to learn about what the Buddha taught, I believe that an ariya would, without hesitation, explain the three characteristics of nature.”

  • Yes. Furthermore, the same principle is embedded in the Four Noble Truths, the three characteristics of nature (Tilakkhana), or Paticca Samuppada.
  • They all describe why/how our immoral actions lead to future suffering. The key here is not all actions but immoral actions.
  • Puthujjana (average humans, including anyone with even the highest intelligence who has not heard/understood the Four Noble Truths) engage in immoral actions because they are unaware of the Tilakkhana or “true nature of the world” (anicca, dukkha, anatta.) Paticca Samuppada explains how immoral actions (abhisankhara) due to ignorance (avijja) lead to future suffering. It starts with “avijja paccaya (abhi)sankhara” and ends with “jati paccaya jara, marana, soka,…” or the “whole mass of suffering.”
  • In the above, anicca nature says all our immoral actions or abhisankhara (believing sensory pleasures can provide lasting happiness) are unfruitful/dangerous. They lead to dukkha or suffering. That is why all such efforts are “devoid of value” and lead to helplessness (when reborn in an apaya), i.e., they are of the anatta nature. That is one way to understand Tilakkhana or the three characteristics of nature.