Three Marks of Existence
According to Buddhist tradition, these are qualities present in everything that exists, whether physical, mental or spiritual in nature, both at a personal and at a social level. One can only say that "something" exists when it is observed to have all three qualities.
- Impermanence
- Nothing is eternal and all things will eventually end.
- Everything that exists is temporary.
- Unsatisfactoriness / Decay
- All things, or our experience of them, decays and leaves one unfulfilled.
- Internal and external conditions cause changes that will leave us longing and attached to how things used to be instead of how they are.
- Non-Self / Interdependence
- Nothing exists because of itself, and its current existence is dependent on the existence, or non-existence, of other objects.
- Nothing is self-contained and free from the ravages of history and things outside it.