The Three Characteristics of All Existence

Everyone wants to be free and happy, but few understand what that really means in the end. You can't be truly happy by getting something you don't have, by attaching yourself to it, but by realizing through your own experience insight into the true nature of reality, thereby understanding the root of being unhappy in the first place. Such insight cannot come through believing in something, but only through honestly examining and understanding the truth about yourself. This requires an open and receptive mind, the opposite of which is a mind with fixed opinions and prejudices, i.e. a dogmatic mind. I urge the reader to transcend the tendency to dogmatism and even to disbelieve what I write here and not to react mechanically to it by accepting and repeating it just because I, the quoted Gautama Buddha or Maitreya Buddha, said it. Make the effort, for your own sake, to understand the Three Characteristics of All Existence, for these are, in the experience of the Buddhas, the most direct path to Liberation. It is the core of absolutely all teachings, the universal answer to all questions and all afflictions of all beings past, present and future. Therefore, listen carefully!

Anything, absolutely anything, that appears in the mind of a being is merely a representation of that subjective mind, a phenomenon/vision/phenomenon, including the phenomenon of one's own self-image. None of these phenomena (Buddha Gautama calls them dharmas) exist by themselves, but through the existence of other phenomena, in a complex web of causal relationships (cause-effect, which is karma). Although each phenomenon is unmistakable due to an infinite number of combinations of inter-conditioning, all phenomena are the same in their basic parameters. These basic parameters, to which everything that appears in the manifested world is subject without exception, were called by the Buddha Gautama the Three Characteristics of All Existence: Anitya (impermanence), Anatman (groundlessness of individuality), and Duhkha (distress).

Anitja

All three characteristics are closely interrelated, and one is based on the other, but it can be said that the Law of Impermanence is the mother of all characteristics, the central concept of the Teachings of all Buddhas. That is why the Buddha Gautama lists Anitya as the first of the three characteristics of all existence, and why the Buddha Maitreya names it the Universal Matrix. The meaning of Anitya lies in the understanding that every phenomenon, without exception, is subject to the Law of Impermanence from which there is no escape. No phenomenon is permanent, everything is subject to constant change, decline and extinction. What may appear to us at first sight as solid things or permanent phenomena are in reality only processes, and their solidity is a mere appearance given by the limited view of a being who is literally "enchanted in time". In the same way, the individual mind is but a shifting stream of consciousness where there is no centrality, nothing permanent, nothing real. What was there a second ago is no longer there. It is no longer here, it is no longer here, it is no longer here... and the fact that nothing can be grasped, let alone held, causes pain to the individual self/ego that fears its end, creates an inner ambivalence in the being and brings distress to its life. Everything is therefore transient and watching the constant process of decay and passing away can make us sad to the point of being nihilistic. However, we should not miss the fact that we are the creators of our own reality and that even knowing that everything is passing away, we can devote our attention to the composition of forms, i.e. creation. Everything that is composed is subject to decomposition, and everything that is subject to decomposition can be reassembled, including the body and personality. What is decisive for beings who have the intention of realizing their own enlightenment is that they create and at the same time not cling to it, that they create with lightness and joy precisely because they can and not with heaviness because they must. Impermanence itself is not the cause of suffering, but clinging to and lusting after that which is impermanent and subject to extinction is the cause.

Anatman

Z výše uvedeného vyplývá, že žádný jev nemá svou nezávislou trvalou povahu (všechny jevy jsou z Buddhova pohledu prázdné). Každý jev je definován pouze svým vztahem k ostatním jevům, které jsou z hlediska pomíjivosti stejné, lišit se může pouze jejich trvání v čase, které je z Buddhova pohledu rovněž iluzorní. Odtud plyne stejnost, tj. rovnost všech jevů. Nezapomínejme, že totéž platí pro každý jev, včetně individuálního já/ego, které neexistuje bez vztahu k "něčemu", co by mohlo "mít", nebo bez vztahu k jiným individuálním jednotkám. Jak říká Buddha Gautama: "Co je pomíjivé a nemůže trvale uspokojit, to nikdo nemůže skutečně říci: Tohle jsem já, tohle mi patří, tohle je moje já." Aby si individuální já/ego udrželo iluzi své existence, připoutává k sobě jevy, jejichž prostřednictvím se potvrzuje. Moje, moje, moje... a vytváří tak sen o svém setrvání v existenci, která nemá a ani při nejlepší snaze (což je utrpení bytosti) nemůže mít trvalou povahu. V Maitréja Buddha Sutře Buddha Maitréja pojmenovává Anatman jako "znak ne-já", který není ani popřením ideje já, ani jejím opakem. To "ne" před "já" znamená, že já nemá žádnou podstatu, neexistuje individualita jako taková, je pouze dočasnou představou na pozadí neustále se měnících mentálních útvarů a tělesných procesů, které jsou neuchopitelné, pomíjivé a neuspokojivé. Neuspokojivé v tom smyslu, že i když nějaký jev vede ke krátkodobému uspokojení, nevědomá bytost bude trpět samotnou představou, že jednou skončí. Jak říká Buddha Maitréja: "Každé znovuzrození zahrnuje opětovné onemocnění, opětovné stárnutí, opětovné umírání, opětovné spojení s tím, co je nám drahé, a rozloučení se s tím, opětovné spojení s tím, co je nám nepříjemné, a rozloučení se s tím".

Duhkha

As already mentioned, clinging to and craving for that which has no independent substance (including our self), is impermanent and doomed to extinction, creates the conditions for suffering of the being. These conditions depend on the degree of ignorance: the deeper the sleep of the being, the greater the degree of subjective suffering. How to emerge from these conditions, how to Awaken and Liberate, is the content of the Four Noble Truths enunciated by Gautama Buddha:

1. The Noble Truth of Suffering

2. The Noble Truth of the Origination of Suffering

3. The Noble Truth of the Cessation of Suffering

4. The sublime Truth of the path leading to the cessation of suffering

The Noble Truth of Suffering

The ignorance of the being inevitably leads to suffering, from which the sleeping being protects himself by suppressing the thought of suffering. It considers suffering to be only a really visible misfortune that cannot be concealed, such as great physical or mental pain. It refuses to see that the repressed mental pain caused by not accepting the true nature of existence is always present in its mind, creating inner ambivalence, dissatisfaction, distress and therefore suffering, whether the being admits it or not. If the being does not acknowledge it, it is doomed to escape strategies that cost it a lot of energy. The life of such a being then resembles a typical dream in which the dreamer is running away from something, not even knowing what, only knowing that he cannot face it. In fact, it can, but it doesn't want to. This puts the being into a looping karmic merry-go-round not unlike hell, whereby they and the other sleepers reinforce each other in the roles of victim, and the degree of suffering that goes with it is considered the norm. As one saying goes, "Hell has no bottom," meaning that there is no end to suffering until a being takes responsibility and says, "enough!" It is in this "enough" that there is a bottom from which a being can rebound. Accepting responsibility in this sense means accepting the First Noble Truth: there is suffering. On the other hand, if the unconscious being laments, "Help me, I suffer, I do all kinds of things and I still suffer, it is unjust!", he is no better off, since he clings to an illusory self that wants to rid itself of some suffering in its self-importance. But the correct insight into the First Noble Truth is that there is a suffering present that has no personal nature, that this suffering is not "mine," that this suffering is not to be responded to with appropriation or aversion, for both are clinging, which means that the suffering being, although he says he does not want to suffer, is actually clinging to his suffering. Gautama Buddha states that "this noble truth is to be penetrated by a perfect understanding of suffering". Instead of suppressing or clinging, what leads to liberation from suffering is making the effort to understand it, to comprehend it, which in Pali means "to embrace". So understanding one's own suffering means embracing oneself. Paradoxically, it means embracing all beings, since suffering is an experience common to all beings without distinction. Thus, by developing insight into the First Noble Truth, we also develop compassion and acceptance of things as they are.

The Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering

The Second Noble Truth says that suffering has a cause, and that cause is, in the words of Gautama Buddha, "desire that leads to another being, accompanied by pleasure and passion, finding pleasure in this and that." Most commonly, craving (which is also translated as lust or thirst) is understood as seeking sensual pleasure, excitement, and enjoyment, whereby the being escapes from the unsatisfying nature of existence. Literally, the being can be said to rape reality in order to "enjoy" it, to pluck something out of it while it is there, in its self-importance, for itself, instead of actually "pro-living" it. The sleeping being thus buys experiences from which it takes experiential emotional states in order to forget for a while the distress that pervades its life, even though it knows in its heart that, given the ephemeral nature of existence, these emotional states are fleeting and the law of conservation of energy will sooner or later carry it anyway to a counterpart it does not desire. More or less she is only occupying herself in this way so that she does not have to face the truth about herself, the truth about the true nature of existence. Experience is a short-term superficial thing, whereas experience is a continuous process of subjective experience of life. We attain, classify and accumulate experiences, whereas experience is actual perceived and not held on to in any way. At the end of life, a being does not reflect on how much he has experienced, how much he has spent in satisfying his desires and how euphorically high it has earned him, but how he has lived life in its variety, what experience he takes away from his confrontation with life.

Another aspect of desire is the desire to become something - something other than what I am. It's not just worldly goals like "being liked"; even a seemingly noble desire, like "being enlightened," is equally a resistance to the status quo, a resistance to oneself, which causes inner ambivalence, inner conflict, and that is distress and therefore suffering. The desire to become something is actually the desire to get rid of what I am or what I believe I have and don't want to have. It is an escape from it, to know myself and to understand my own suffering. Gautama Buddha says that "desire is to be abandoned" and even the desire for that desire to be abandoned. That is why Buddha Maitreya says, "Have no desires." Don't have desires to abandon desires in order to be happy, simply begin to recognize and understand desires without identifying with them. Desire is not what we are, it is the way we tend to react if we have not understood the Four Noble Truths. Desire can be looked upon in a purely impersonal way, as a mechanical part of Samsara which attaches beings to itself by means of that desire. Desire in itself does not cause suffering; the cause of suffering is the KEEPING of desire, which we come to only by sincerely examining our desires, not by wishing to get rid of them. To grasp is to be blinded, to think that there is an "I" and a "mine". Just as the First Noble Truth states, "There is suffering," we can now state, "There is desire as the cause of suffering." Notice that Gautama Buddha does not say that there is an "I" that "has" suffering or that "has" craving. As long as there is an I/ego that grasps craving in a like-dislike, want-don't want, should-be-shouldn't-be style, then suffering is present.

The Noble Truth of the Cessation of Suffering

The Third Noble Truth is a grace for the being who has believed that he is suffering, since it points out that there is a way out of suffering. It is essential to distinguish between the "cessation" and the "destruction" of suffering. When craving and clinging are present in a being's mind, then lawfully, if the being believes that he is suffering, he will get the impression that he has to get rid of the suffering, whereby he is merely reinforcing old habits and spinning in the wheel of karma, even though he may think that he is doing something really noble. The cessation comes not from thinking, "I must get rid of this," but from letting what has arisen cease to exist again. Cessation is the natural termination of whatever condition has arisen. Since the Second Noble Truth implies that the cause of suffering is craving, suffering ceases the moment craving ceases. This means that instead of rejecting, repressing, resisting, we simply let go of desire, let it go. She would have left anyway, she is not leaving yet because we are holding on to her, although we say out loud that she is holding on to us. It is the nature of all phenomena that come in, have a limited duration, and then leave again. The Third Noble Truth is therefore closely related to the full understanding and insight into the Universal Matrix of the Law of Impermanence. To fully understand it, it is not enough to try to understand it intellectually; true understanding, or insight, can only come about when we apply it to our daily lives and have experiential outputs from it. This is the most difficult part for the being, since the daily confrontation with letting go and letting go, is naturally related to the fear of death. By deepening our understanding of the Four Noble Truths, we bring to consciousness the fundamental problem of human existence. Desire and clinging, though themselves leading to suffering, become the only alternative for a being who refuses to face the fear of death to "survive" here. And this is the real hell that a being creates for himself if he closes himself off out of fear. In doing so, it fails to realize that all sensual pleasures are mortal pleasures. Whatever the being becomes attached to, it becomes attached to death. That is why Gautama Buddha calls such beings "death-devoted" beings. Confrontation with death is therefore integral to the realization of the cessation of suffering. When we don't allow cessation to come about, we tend to act on the basis of the assumptions we make about ourselves without even knowing who we are and what we are doing. So, paradoxically, we must first let go of ourselves in order to become that person.

If we have the intention to let go of anything, we need to open our minds and let everything that we have clung to and repressed in life arise naturally in consciousness. We cannot let go of what we cannot see. Which means that we must be willing to undergo suffering that we may not have been aware of until then and that we have systematically hidden from ourselves. In order to release the repressed, we often have to allow ourselves to experience even what we find unbearable, such as our early childhood wrongs and pains, experiences that are buried so deeply that when they come, we are struck by their intensity. It is only when we let these contents come to the surface, understand them, give them understanding, that is, embrace them, that we can release them, not before. Here again we come to the fact that even cessation is not personal: "this is not 'mine' and therefore I can let it go", so in the words of Gautama Buddha we can say, "there is cessation of suffering and this cessation should be realized." We can develop this practice by mindfully observing the mental formations attached to "I" and "mine" and gradually letting go of them. With the realization of the Third Noble Truth, the being realizes the transcendence of death, becomes an Unborn being, realizes its own Awakening from the cycle of death and the birth of Samsara.

The Noble Truth of the Path Leading to the Cessation of Suffering

From a place of immeasurable compassion, Gautama Buddha reveals to suffering beings a specific path leading to the cessation of suffering, not in terms of individual steps or stages, but in terms of eight components to be developed simultaneously in what is called the "golden mean path," which can equally be called the "True," "Right," "Wise," or "Perfect" path. "To indulge in sense gratification is low, gross, worldly, unennobling, unprofitable. To indulge in self-torture is painful, unennobling, unbeneficial. Both these extremes are avoided by the middle path of the Perfect One, which makes true seeing and knowing possible, which leads to peace and tranquility, to wise discernment, to awakening, to Nirvana." Indulgence and asceticism come from a lack of compassion for oneself; the golden mean, on the other hand, develops compassion, where compassion is the compass that keeps the being on the right path. Therefore, it can be said that the active ingredient in the cure for suffering is True Self-compassion. The golden mean is not an average between extremes. It is rather that the being does not press upon itself more than it can bear at the moment, and at the same time is not arrogant towards itself and does not run away from the responsibility of its own Awakening. It does not make demands on itself greater than it needs to, it is not hard on itself. She does not treat herself violently, but also not indifferently, calculatingly, but also not frivolously. Gautama Buddha says that the golden mean is the path of the Perfect, which in no way excludes the fragility of such a being. On the contrary, that perfection consists precisely in looking compassionately at oneself with all one's imperfections, without giving rise to the desire to be someone else. It does not mean falling asleep on the fact that there is no need to change anything, that would be indifference. It's about ending the inner conflict of letting things go non-violently, according to their nature.

As far as the eight members of the path are concerned, it is a comprehensive system leading to the cessation of suffering, involving the three most important areas of human activity (morality, concentration and wisdom).

Morality is primarily an activity that is directed to the external world (right speech, right action, and right livelihood), where the purity of the being is reflected and the nature and simplicity are deepened. Morality means a peaceful, truthful and honest way of life, by which a being does no harm to himself or others. It is, by and large, an activity that develops compassion in the everyday and leads to a natural life in which we take responsibility for our words and actions, in which we are aware of our intentions, that is, we know our motivation for doing what we do.

Concentration deepens the cognitive faculties (right effort, right awareness, right concentration), whereby there is a gradual shift of orientation from the objects of the external world to the ties that bind the being to those objects. Just as morality is the way of abandoning unwholesome actions that are uncompassionate and promote suffering, concentration is the way of abandoning unwholesome states of mind. The essential skill then is mindfulness, which is not developed by meditation alone, but requires a general attitude of mindfulness, clear awareness, awareness of one's surroundings, one's experiences, one's actions and their consequences in everyday life. Thus the path of morality and concentration eventually merges into a single mindful and simple way of living with a balanced mind.

Wisdom is the highest aspect of the eight-part path that deepens knowledge - seeing things as they are (right seeing and right thinking). Through wisdom, pure vision, insight into the True Nature of Reality, is born. The very knowledge of the Four Noble Truths deepens wisdom, and from it comes the overcoming of the three bondages: delusion of self, doubtfulness, and clinging. By gradually deepening the understanding of the Three Characteristics of Existence, insight that does not come from a place of reason is realized, e.g., "I think ..." or "This thought makes sense..." but from a place of the heart where doubt is no longer a problem. There is still the body, there are still feelings and thoughts, but they are only what they are - there is no longer the conviction that you are your body, your feelings or your thoughts. The emphasis is that "things are what they are", they are just "as they are". It does not imply a negative attitude of "That's just the way it is and there's nothing I can do about it." That's the burden. When I accept life as it is without clinging to it, it brings more of a lightness. And even though it can be challenging at times, we can embrace it, accept it, and learn from it.

Just because wisdom is the highest aspect of the eight-part path does not mean that it is more important to focus on that part or that it is the culminating or final step. All parts of the path are equal, all are equally essential. But wisdom is like the jewel at the crown of the path, the knowledge that grows and shines when all aspects of the eight-part path come together in wisdom. In fact, no member of the path can be separated from another; everything is interconnected and all is happening at once. The glow of the gem is rather gradual, the vision becoming more and more clear, like slowly waking up in the morning. It is a complex, patient, compassionate process of gradually extinguishing lust and clinging, at exactly the pace that any given being needs.

Conclusion

All that I have just written are simple reflections, outputs from my own practice, an attempt to describe reality as clearly as possible, based on the wisdom of all the Buddhas to whom I owe my gratitude for not being silent and sharing the light of knowledge that now enables me to be that same light for beings groping in the darkness. It is not so important to remember exactly what I say as it is to understand from where I speak and how I think. This text is intended to encourage you to find within yourself the courage to wisely examine how things are, rather than waiting for someone to tell you whether or not you are ready for enlightenment. Enlightenment as an object of desire is illusory. Enlightenment cannot be an object, as it is actually a process that is completely natural to the mind. The only one who is preventing you from enlightenment is yourself. Likewise, the only one who can grant you the grace to realize enlightenment is yourself. What was possible for me is possible for you. Be happy!

The Awakened Tomas Merlin Jezek

Rightful Member of the Heart Dharma Sangha

Introduced by Maitreya Institute