Talk:Three marks of existence

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The Dharma of Dukkha should not be among the Three Seals, and Dukkha should be the ADDITIONAL FOURTH seal instead of tranquility of Nirvana. Therefore, the Three Seals of Dharma are: 1.Anitya (impermanence), 2.Anatman (No-self), and 3.Tranquility of Nirvana. Reference: http://www.buddhistdoor.com/bdoor/0108/sources/seals.htm  ; http://www.ibc-rk.org/04Dharma%20talk/Dharma%20talk7/01dharmatalk7.html  ; and also the Chinese classic: 智度論二十二曰：「佛法印有三種：一者一切有為法念念生滅皆無常，二者一切法無我，三者寂滅涅槃。（中略）摩訶衍中說諸法不生不滅，一相所謂無相。」 - kumkee 14:40, 01 May 2005 (UTC)

If there is no objection by the end of May, I whill correct the Three-Seal content. -- kumkee 12:54, 11 May 2005 (UTC)
Charles Muller's digital dictionary agrees with you. This convinces me, at the very least, that the version with nirvana is standard in the Sinitic world. I guess there's a chance that other versions might predominate in other languages. The only reason I bring this up is that the version with dukkha seems to enjoy fairly wide credence as standard in English. - Nat Krause 14:53, 11 May 2005 (UTC)


This could use headers differentiating various interpretive traditions within Buddhism. -- कुक्कुरोवाच|Talk‽

Yes- it's possibly a little syncretic; ideas? (20040302 20:49, 9 May 2004 (UTC))
Unfortunately, a lot of this stuff is out of my field, so I'm not sure how best to tinker. I threw up a division between the main article and a section on various traditions' interpretations; that should help a little bit. -- कुक्कुरोवाच|Talk‽ 23:23, May 9, 2004 (UTC)
looks good as ever, kukku.. (20040302 04:38, 10 May 2004 (UTC))

This page makes no sense at all. The three marks of existence are "1. Dukkha- The reality and universality of suffering. 2. Samudaya- Td control things. 3. Nirodha- Suffering ceases with the final liberation of Nirvana." www.religioustolerance.org/buddhism1.htm

That is not correct. You are listing the first three of the Four Noble Truths, as the website cited accurately states. - Nat Krause 03:08, 16 Feb 2005 (UTC)



Hi Good Folks at Wikipedia,

I've seen hundreds of references to the Three Marks of all Conditioned Phenomena. They universally list

Impermanence, Unsatisfactoriness and Not-Self

as the Three Marks of All Conditioned Phenomena.

There is a small confusion as sometimes there are 4 Characteristics listed (including 'Only Nirvana is Peace). These four constitute a different list and refers to the Four Characteristics of all Buddhist Teachings.


Here are some unimpeachable sources that list the Three Marks as Impermanence, Unsatisfactoriness and Not-self.


General Index of Access to Insight

This link lists the following 3 terms as part of the Three Marks:

Anicca - impermanence Dukkha - suffering or unsatisfactoriness Anatta - not-self)


  • * * * *


From A Concise Encyclopedia of Buddhism by Professor John Powers

page 226

The pate lists the Three Marks as the Sanskrit Trilaksana or the Pali Tilakkhana. Tibetan is mtshan nyid gsum.

Powers lists the three Marks as:

(1) selflessness - Skt. Anatman; (2) impermanence - Skt. Anitya and (3) unsatisfactoriness or suffering - Skt. Dukkha


  • * * * *

Buddhist Studies: Glossary of Buddhist Terms

Buddha Net - an Influential site for Buddhism lists

Anatta Anittya/Anicca Dukkha

Buddha Net lists under each of these three terms that they are part of the Three Marks.

  • * * * *

Buddhist Glossary from Tricycle, an influential Buddhist Magazine

This glossary notes that Vipassana or Insight Meditation yields a meditative and intuitive cognition of the three marks of existence as:

impermanence or anitya, suffering or duhkha, and no-self or

Note also that this text notes that vipassana in the Mahayana is said to lead to an intuitive knowledge of emptiness as well as the three marks and other subjects.

  • * * * *

Thanks for all your work. Wikipedia is a valuable - a Vital - part of the Web.

Van Baldwin

I say yes!

Merge "Three Signs of Being" into "Three marks of existence."

I need to apologize to the editors of "Being," but I'm afraid that the page is not very well written: choppy and jargon-heavy. And (now, I am not in any sense an expert on Buddhist philosophy, so I may be quite wrong), it doesn't appear to have much content that "Existence" doesn't have: it's just phrased differently and generally less well.

I notice there's been no discussion on the subject for quite some time. I should like it if someone were to just go ahead and do it.
I'd do it myself if I knew enough about the subject to edit with confidence.

--Deaconse 03:39, 21 January 2006 (UTC)

OK, I went and did it. I looked at both pages and decided, in my boundless arrogance, that Three Signs of Being is a bad article compared to this one, and that it doesn't contain anything useful that this article doesn't, so I just made it into a redirect. I would have liked for someone to take a better look at it and try and pick out nice things to put in here, but it was just taking too long for me so I decided to follow the Be Bold and the WP:IAR principles. --Toon 18:25, 7 February 2006 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] Clasification of three "marks" doesn't seems to be correct

As far as I can remember, "Three Dharma Seals" are Anicca, Anatta, Nirvana. And adding Dukkah make it "Four Dharma Seals". Who wrote this? FWBOarticle

Plus, if you want it to be accurate translation wise, the title should be "Three (Buddha)Dharma Seals". FWBOarticle

[edit] Dharma=Existence

This is wrong in so many ways. We should change the title of this article to "Three Dharma Seals" FWBOarticle

Dharma Seals redirects here. I don't think there's anything wrong with this article as it is right now. Of course, I don't know much about these things but it all seesm to make sense. Toon 09:26, 27 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Reverted edits by 4.131.49.89 regarding Atman

I have reverted the edits made by 4.131.49.89 since

  1. they are not in line with the style of the rest of the article,
  2. I am unable to verify the sources (Dn 2.100 and SN 3.196),
  3. this is not an article on Vedanta.

For an interesting read about Buddhism and Vedanta, see e.g. Vedanta and Buddhism, A Comparative Study, especially this paragraph:

The denial of an imperishable Atman is common ground for all systems of Hinayana as well as Mahayana, and there is, therefore, no reason for the assumption that Buddhist tradition, unanimous on that point, has deviated from the original doctrine of the Buddha. If the Buddha, contrary to the Buddhist tradition, had actually proclaimed a transcendental Atman, a reminiscence of it would have been preserved somehow by one of the older sects. It is remarkable that even the Pudgalavadins, who assume a kind of individual soul, never appeal to texts in which an Atman in this sense is proclaimed. He who advocates such a revolutionary conception of the Buddha's teachings, has also the duty to show evidence how such a complete transformation started and grew, suddenly or gradually. But non of those who advocate the Atta-theory has taken to comply with that demand which is indispensable to a historian.

Sleep well, Andkaha(talk) 09:40, 3 February 2007 (UTC)


[edit] Needs cites!

Added "Unreferenced" tag. "This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed." See also Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Buddhism. -- Writtenonsand (talk) 22:13, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Summary

Can we summarize as follows?

  • Theravada (order as given here, not current article):
    • all sankharas are anicca
    • all sankharas are dukkha
    • all dhammas are anatta (including nirvana & concepts)
  • East Asian Buddhism: different list of 3 signs as stated above in this column
  • Tibetan Buddhism: 4 seals

Peter jackson (talk) 09:53, 5 January 2008 (UTC)