Buddhism in Translations · 2 of 111

The Three Characteristics

THE THREE CHARACTERISTICS.

Translated from the Anguttara-Nikâya (iii.1341).

Whether Buddhas arise, O priests, or whether Buddhas do not arise, it remains a fact and the fixed and necessary constitution of being, that all its constituents are transitory. This fact a Buddha discovers and masters, and when he has discovered and mastered it, he announces, teaches, publishes, proclaims, discloses, minutely explains, and makes it clear, that all the constituents of being are transitory.

Whether Buddhas arise, O priests, or whether Buddhas do not arise, it remains a fact and the fixed and necessary constitution of being, that all its constituents are misery. This fact a Buddha discovers and masters, and when he has discovered and mastered it, he announces, teaches, publishes, proclaims, discloses, minutely explains, and makes it clear, that all the constituents of being are misery.

Whether Buddhas arise, O priests, or whether Buddhas do not arise, it remains a fact and the fixed and necessary constitution of being, that all its elements are lacking in an Ego. This fact a Buddha discovers and masters, and when he has discovered and mastered it, he announces, teaches, publishes, proclaims, discloses, minutely explains, and makes it clear, that all the elements of being are lacking in an Ego.

Insight

The third mark — that all the elements of being are lacking in an Ego — is the one the Buddha presents as his own most distinctive teaching, and the one the surrounding Indian world found hardest to absorb. The Upanishads had already arrived at impermanence and at the suffering character of conditioned existence; what they did not concede was anatta. Brahmanical contemplatives looked inward and found atman, the unborn Self that is one with Brahman. The Buddha looked inward and reported that he found no such thing — only five running streams of process (form, sensation, perception, predispositions, consciousness) and no owner behind them. This is the place where the Buddhist path diverges from the Vedantic one, and the divergence is permanent.Standard Buddhist-Vedantic comparison; cf. Steven Collins, Selfless Persons