The 3 Characteristics

This is Adam Mizner's Dhamma Talk on The 3 Characteristics. Adam has dedicated many years to the in-depth study of Daoism, western Hermetics, and the Buddha Dhamma and is initiated into and teaches methods from these traditions. He is a senior lay disciple of Ajahn Jumnien in the Thai Forest tradition of Theravada Buddhism. This deep spiritual background has a large influence on his approach to internal development teaching.

Please note: This track was recorded live and may contain background noice.

Transcript

There are three characteristics that the Buddha used to describe all of existence.

Three universal characteristics.

Anicca,

Or impermanence,

That which is subject to change.

Dukkha,

That which is subject to suffering.

The unsatisfactory nature of things.

Anicca,

The truth of not-self,

Or a lacquer of an abiding essence,

And no essence.

There are three pillars of the past that we cultivate.

Tila,

Is restraint,

Conduct and virtue.

Samadhi,

The stilling of the mind.

And bhanya,

Insight and wisdom.

Dassonment.

Three characteristics of existence,

And the three pillars of the past.

That which is,

And that which we need to cultivate.

The final thing we cultivate is wisdom.

We cultivate wisdom by seeing the way things are.

The way things are is the first three characteristics,

The three characteristics of the universe.

The first one is anicca,

Impermanence.

It's easy to understand,

Nobody will deny that all things end.

Everything ends.

But intellectual understanding does not help us.

So we don't need to go out and go to distant lands to search for the Dharma.

All we need to do is be sitting,

Walking,

Eating,

Normal life.

We can see the Dharma will come straight to us at all times.

Impermanence will follow you wherever you go.

Anything you hold on to will fall away.

Anything you don't hold on to will fall away.

Whatever you cherish will fall away,

Whatever you don't cherish will fall away.

There's nothing we can find that is unchanging.

Easy to understand.

But the skill comes from seeing.

So we have to train ourselves,

Train the sati,

Train the mindfulness,

To be mindful,

To keep the mind full of the quality,

Of the reality of impermanence,

So that we can see impermanence here and now.

And that way the Dharma will always arise.

We can see the truth,

See impermanence.

Starting from the most gross in our life,

Situations are ever changing.

A relationship with somebody you want it to be the way it was in the beginning.

While it changes,

It's impermanent.

Health,

It falls away.

Youth,

Wealth.

Everything that we see,

Everything that we know,

Everything we desire,

Everything we hold on to,

Ends.

This ending is the most natural of all things.

It seems almost crazy when you say it out loud that we want things to not end when they're bound up with ending.

If we really wished for night not to come and for it to stay as day,

And that we were emotionally disturbed and shattered and depressed because night time came,

We'd be considered insane.

Everybody knows night time is going to come,

So what are you crying about?

It's just the nature of things that after day comes night.

Day is impermanent.

But still we try to hold on to other things,

Grasping at them,

Even though they're simply unsure.

They cannot last.

They will end the same way that day ends.

Still we want them to last.

The Buddha describes sufferings,

Two kinds of suffering.

The innate suffering and the suffering that comes by wanting things to be,

Not the way they are.

So it's described by somebody who was shot with an arrow.

When one is shot with an arrow,

There's physical pain.

We can't deny physical pain.

We can't deny impermanence.

Impermanence is things end.

The body decays,

Sickness comes.

Loved ones leave us.

Weather changes.

Everything changes.

That's innate.

The problem is when we desperately want things to be permanent.

Clinging to permanence is suffering.

So the second noble truth,

Sorry,

The second characteristic of dukkha becomes present.

Because of impermanence,

There is suffering.

Because things don't last,

They are bound up with suffering.

Some people prefer to say unsatisfactory,

They are unsatisfactory.

Because we can't be ultimately satisfied by that which ends.

The very nature is for it to end.

So there's a natural suffering of things falling away,

That's okay.

But then there's a suffering of wanting things to be permanent.

Like the person that doesn't want night to come.

This is the problem.

The second arrow,

The arrow of ignorance.

We all have to suffer the first arrow.

Things are impermanent.

That's the nature of things.

But it's not a big deal.

The big deal is when we struggle against reality.

Struggling against the way things are is endless suffering.

That's easy to understand.

But we have to learn how to see it here and now.

So when you sit down in your meditation,

You're sitting still,

You start to see.

There is a feeling,

Just the experience of the body.

Okay,

This is pleasant.

The breath is pleasant.

Then there's knee pain.

Now the knee pain is gone,

Now there's heat in the knee.

Now my hip is hurting.

Now I'm at peace again.

Oh,

This meditation is awesome.

What am I having for dinner tonight?

So by observing our meditation,

We see the impermanent nature of things.

The sensation of the body,

The experience of the body is constantly changing.

At one minute it's pleasant,

The next minute it's unpleasant.

And it's neither pleasant nor unpleasant.

The outer circumstances can be still and unchanging,

But still the experience is changing.

And that is the body which is the most permanent part of us,

Of the five khandhas which make up the human being.

The body is the most reliable and the most permanent.

If we look at Facebook wisdom,

Everybody knows that the body is,

We're not the body.

We must be more than the body.

So anybody knows that we're not the body.

But at least the body lasts us a lifetime.

The mind is truly impermanent.

One minute it's joyful,

The next minute it's miserable.

One minute it's loving,

The next minute it's filled with hatred.

The same person you have nothing but tenderness for,

The next minute you have nothing but bitterness for.

The mind is truly impermanent.

It's changing.

Everything we hear changes our view.

Our opinions change constantly.

Our moods change constantly,

Our perceptions change constantly.

Thoughts arise,

Exist and fall away endlessly.

Everything mental is impermanent.

Much more than the body.

At least the body lasts a lifetime.

The mind is constant change.

Not to be relied on.

In this way we begin to look at ourselves,

Look at the body,

Look at sensations.

Rupa anitta.

Rupa is impermanent.

Rupa arises,

Exists and falls away.

Matter arises,

Exists and falls away.

Veda na anitta.

Sensations are impermanent.

Sensations arise,

Exist and fall away.

One after another they arise,

Exist and fall away.

When you get skilled at looking at this,

You see falling away is the most natural thing.

There is peace in falling away.

When we don't cling trying to make things stay when it's their nature to fall away,

There's no problem with them falling away.

It's just the most natural thing.

Perceptions.

Our perceptions are impermanent.

Sanja anitta.

They arise,

They exist and they fall away.

Mental formations,

Thoughts,

That which we create in our mind.

Emotions,

Views,

Ideas,

The fabrications of the mind.

Sankara anitta.

They arise,

Exist and fall away continuously.

When you try to still the mind,

You see how quickly they fall away,

How easily they arise and how fickle they are.

Consciousness.

Consciousness arises.

The knowing arises and falls away.

We're aware of things through the eyes.

We're aware of things through the ears.

We're aware of thoughts,

Aware of sensations.

Vinyana anitta.

Consciousness is impermanent.

Consciousness arises,

Exists and falls away.

These five bundles of suffering,

The khandhas,

Which we carry around are impermanent.

Bound up with suffering and not self.

Because they are ever-changing,

They're unreliable.

Because they're ever-changing and unreliable,

We can't call them a self.

There's no abiding essence.

They're empty of essence,

Empty of self.

So how do we cultivate on the path?

We cultivate the knowing quality.

Yana,

The quality of knowing.

The deepest part of consciousness.

Butto,

To be awake to know.

The quality of the Buddha.

To be awake is butto.

Butta is that which is awake.

That which knows.

Butto is the knowing.

Butta is that which knows.

Butto is impermanent.

You know,

You don't know.

You have mindfulness,

You don't have mindfulness.

You see and then you miss it.

You try to be mindful,

Mindful and mindful and then we're not mindful.

Butto is impermanent.

That's why we say vinyana anicca,

Consciousness is impermanent.

But nirvana,

That's permanent.

Surely the awakened state is permanent.

That's butta,

Not butto.

Butta,

That which knows is permanent.

But it's knowing in the unawakened one is impermanent.

Butto is impermanent.

Butta is impermanent.

Butta is immortal.

Butto is changing.

So the path is cultivating the knowing quality,

The butto,

Until butto becomes butta.

Until the knowing becomes stable.

So that the knower is stable.

So that the knower is always knowing.

This is the awakened state.

To be awake,

Permanently awake.

To not drift off into non-knowing.

Non-knowing or ignorance.

Not seeing.

Not seeing impermanence.

Not seeing suffering.

Not seeing oneself.

Clinging to things as if they were permanent.

Not seeing the downfall in things,

Which is just the natural state.

Instead we wish it was permanent and we see only the good side.

And then attach to it like it's me or mine.

Seeing permanence,

Seeing only the pleasures and seeing self.

Me and mine,

The cause of all suffering.

Not seeing impermanence leads to self.

Seeing impermanence leads to realizing not self.

When you realize not self,

There's no me and there's no mine.

When there's no me and there's no mine,

There's no suffering.

How can you suffer without something to suffer?

How can you suffer when nothing belongs to you?

And there's no you.

Not you not belonging to you.

This body is not me nor belonging to me.

Therefore with its inevitable perish and when it disintegrates,

There's nothing to worry about.

But if it's mine and it belongs to me,

It's going to be awfully upsetting.

Sensations are impermanent.

They arise,

Exist and fall away.

If we really want to have pleasant sensations all the time,

It's going to be extra unpleasant when we have unpleasant sensations.

Pain will arise.

Pain is natural.

Pain happens.

Unpleasant sensation happens.

Dependent on cause and condition,

It arises,

Exists and falls away.

Knowingness is the quality of butto,

The knowing.

Knowing impermanence.

Seeing its true nature.

Impermanence,

Change.

Because it's impermanent and changing,

It's not self,

It's anatta.

Because it's anatta,

It's free from me and mine.

There's nothing to suffer.

So we let go.

We see,

We know and we let go.

This is the practice.

Doing this simply on the meditation mat does not help.

We need to do it on the meditation mat and in daily life.

So at the most crude level,

We can look at that big,

The big impermanence of things.

The changing of jobs,

The changing of health,

The changing of relationships,

The way things end.

When they end,

You can be at peace with ending because impermanence is the natural way.

It's so normal.

Seeing normalcy.

Seeing nature.

You breathe in,

The in-breath ends and you breathe out.

It's the most normal thing.

You cannot continuously breathe in.

You cannot continuously breathe out.

Things arise,

Exist and fall away.

This is the most normal and natural state.

Such an obvious truth that knowing it does not help.

We have to know it.

We have to see it in the present moment continuously.

Seeing reality is different from regurgitating information about reality.

An intellectual understanding that everything changes,

A five-year-old can have that.

But seeing that changing quality in existence is different.

And we do this by cultivating our mindfulness,

Sati.

Cultivating our sati till our sati becomes strong.

Until our sati becomes ever-present.

When our sati is ever-present,

We call it Maha Sati,

Your great mindfulness.

This just simply means mindfulness that is always there.

It's not late.

You don't miss the trick.

You don't come late.

When it's always there,

You're always seeing the way things are.

You always see the arising,

Existing and falling away.

When you don't see the arising,

Existing and falling away,

You fall into the delusion,

The illusion of permanence,

The illusion of substance.

And because it's permanent,

It's lasting,

Surely it's worth clinging to.

When you see it,

It's naturally always falling away.

It's like grasping mirage,

Like a magician's illusion.

There's nothing there.

It's just change.

There's really nothing worth grasping onto.

So we can experience things,

But we don't hold onto them.

So you can have the pleasure of things,

But you don't have the suffering when they fall away.

Experience simply happens.

Sukkha and Dukkha happen.

Happiness and sadness happen.

That's okay.

Grasping onto them,

Trying to force reality to be the way it is not is a great cause of suffering.

Not seeing impermanence.

We've all experienced what it's like when something happens in life that we're not too happy about.

We contemplate it and finally we come to peace with it.

Okay,

That's simply the way things are.

That's just the way it is and you kind of let go inside,

You make peace with it,

And it's okay.

Before that point,

It was awfully stressful and depressing.

When you come to peace with it and let go,

Inside,

There is peace,

There is ease.

If you become skillful at this and can do it quickly,

You never get the build-up of suffering.

You simply are at peace with change.

Simply be at peace with change.

Seeing not-self is much more difficult.

Seeing impermanence is easy.

Impermanence is the most easy of the three qualities to see.

People have a resistance to looking at suffering.

They consider it a negative view.

Although it's not a negative view,

It's simply the other side of the coin that we always look at the positive.

We always look at our desires.

We usually don't look at the way things cause suffering for us.

Not until we're suffering,

Then we're so busy caught up suffering that we don't look at the causes of suffering.

So we see the cause of suffering as what somebody said to us,

How somebody's treating us.

Really that's not the cause of suffering.

That's simply sound.

What somebody said to us is sound.

Like the sound of the motorcycle that went past.

Just sound.

Just vibrations hitting the ear gate and then the ear consciousness.

Recognizing that,

Perceptions coming up.

We label that sound dependent on how we were trained,

What language.

Then we have mental formations arise.

Dependent on that perception,

We label and we make a judgment on that sound.

Oh,

What he said was unpleasant.

Now we have a whole lot of suffering based on sound.

There was really just sound.

Sound existed,

Arose existed and fell away.

Very simple.

Existing,

Falling away.

But we make great stories about things and the great story about things is a great bundle of suffering.

Much more than the sound.

Somebody says something we don't like.

Adam,

Your talks are extremely boring.

Drives me mad.

Okay,

They said that there was sound.

And if you let it spin around in your head a thousand times that day.

So it wasn't enough for them to say it to us.

Once we have to say it to ourselves,

Now another thousand times.

We make that which is impermanent,

Permanent.

We make the passing little nothing into a great suffering.

Very unskillful.

They're training to see the natural way of things.

Training to see the falling away of things.

It's very peaceful.

This too shall pass.

Whatever comes up,

This will pass.

Then when happy things end,

That's just normal.

When there's suffering,

You know it will pass.

Instead of when there's suffering,

The whole world closes in like it's never going to end.

I can't believe this is happening.

We make a great big story about it,

A great suffering about it.

How many of us this week or last week had an issue with somebody we love at work or some kind of thing that seemed almost too much to bear?

Almost too much to bear.

Where is it now?

That too will pass or has passed.

Impermanence is not something to be sad about.

It's simply the way it is.

Take refuge in truth.

Take refuge in the way things are.

If you take refuge in the way things are not,

It's an unstable refuge,

Not a very safe refuge.

If you take refuge in truth,

Truth will never fail you because it simply is.

It simply is the way it is.

You can have a refuge in that all things will end.

That will never fail you.

They will end.

Nothing will ever change that law.

That law is unchanging.

Becoming at peace with the way things are makes you at ease.

And so we start to develop wisdom.

Not the wisdom of some fancy sounding Zen saying,

The wisdom of seeing the way things are.

So when we see reality,

We are no longer crazy.

That simple.

Insane is not sane.

Not seeing reality.

We're all insane.

Only the Arahants are sane.

Every other being is insane.

There are only different levels of insanity.

Some people are so insane we think that they need treatment.

Some people are a little less insane and they just chase around after false happiness their whole life failing.

Chase around after things that don't exist their whole life failing.

That's the standard level of insanity.

Believing in things that don't exist,

Spending their whole effort on them.

The more you learn to see reality,

The less insane you become.

The more sober you become.

When you meet people with solid spiritual practice,

Every time they're very sober.

Because they see reality.

It's not mystical and trippy.

Seeing reality is the work.

When you see reality continuously,

You can't help but come to peace with reality.

Come to peace with the characteristics of the universe.

With impermanence,

With suffering and not self.

Coming to peace we don't have to fight the way things are.

So the internal battle falls away.

You don't struggle anymore.

There is ease.

The burden is dropped.

You become light.

Stress falls away.

Even at the most basic level.

Not yet penetrating through to emptiness and not self.

Not yet touching on Nibbana.

Simply seeing impermanence.

Simply seeing the change of things.

Practice this.

Practice it sitting.

Practice it standing.

Practice it walking.

Practice it lying down.

The four postures of practice.

All the time.

Eating.

Taste comes.

Taste falls away.

I like this meal.

I don't like this meal.

I'm hungry.

Now I'm satisfied.

Oops,

I ate too much.

Now I'm full.

Hunger was impermanent.

Satisfaction was impermanent.

Being overly full is also a change in quality.

Then that falls away and hunger comes up again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

This too shall pass.

So why make such a big deal about it?

When your knees hurt,

It's another Tuesday night.

My knees are hurting sitting here.

When you stand up,

Your knees stop hurting.

Last Tuesday night when you stood up,

Your knees stop hurting.

Knee pain is impermanent.

We don't need to make a big deal about it.

Knee pain simply is.

It's very important to become at ease with pain.

Suffering is the way it is.

It does not become less in life.

With aging,

There is only more body suffering.

Body suffering only increases.

So it's a good idea to become at ease with it.

To become peaceful with it.

In the last years,

A lot of people think,

When I'm older I'll do my spiritual practice.

Right now I'm going to live and indulge in money and checks and drugs and all the good stuff.

And when I'm older,

I will turn inward and I'll become deep.

But when you're older,

Pain.

There is pain.

Breathing is hard.

Sitting still is painful.

And you haven't been cultivating the skill of seeing impermanence and seeing suffering and becoming at peace with it.

Instead,

When we hide from it,

We hide from it with alcohol,

We hide from it with physical pleasures,

We hide from it by watching TV,

By watching movies,

By listening to music,

By getting massaged,

By changing position.

Everything we do is a desperate attempt to hide from pain.

Hiding from suffering.

Then it gets stronger.

Sickness kicks in,

Aging,

Suffering gets more intense.

As you get closer to death,

All the way until death,

Which for most people is extremely painful.

So at those important moments towards death,

We might have all the good intentions to do practice and to become more spiritual,

But we simply don't have the skills.

We're simply not capable of sitting still and doing the meditation.

Where mind is so distracted by the pain that we need to blow it out with painkillers.

So then we're in a blurred out state.

When you're blurred out,

You can't do the spiritual work because you're just deluded.

You're in a fuzz.

So you need to become intimate with change.

Get used to it.

That doesn't mean changing.

That means watching change.

To watch change you should be still.

If you're changing all the time,

It's very difficult to see change.

Like holding a video camera and shaking it around,

It's changing all the time.

The picture is not clear.

You don't see the small changes in the room.

But if you put the camera on a tripod and you hold it perfectly still,

Then you see small change.

You see an ant walking across the floor.

So we cultivate stillness and then we can see change.

We see impermanence in an attempt to be permanent.

In an attempt to keep the mind still,

We see the changing nature of body and mind.

If you don't train the mind to be still,

You never see the changing nature of the mind.

You're spinning off with it.

The camera is shaking too.

Because you're so busy,

You don't see.

You only have the intellectual understanding.

The lens is not still.

It's just a blurry picture.

So we cultivate stillness.

We cultivate permanence.

And we see change and we see impermanence.

The work of a meditator to keep their mind on one object.

The realization of a meditator.

The mind follows its own nature.

The mind changes.

Reality.

See reality.

Know its nature.

Its nature is not self and emptiness.

Let go.

Let go.

What do we let go of?

We let go of the burning embers.

We let go of the pain.

We let go of suffering.

What is suffering?

Me and mine.

Letting go of it,

There's no problem.

Holding onto it,

It's like holding up hot coal in the hand and holding it.

This coal is mine and it burns.

All you have to do is drop it.

The moment you drop it,

The suffering ends.

It's as simple as that.

You need to see,

Oh,

This is a coal.

This coal is suffering.

This coal is burning.

This coal is neither me nor mine.

Let go.

See no reality and let go.

This does not mean we renounce our external life.

You cannot renounce your external life.

Even a monk eats,

Sleeps,

Talks,

Has social life and does everything else.

You cannot renounce the external life.

If that made you awakened,

Then a coma would do us all just fine.

We could just be in a coma and we become enlightened.

Renouncing activity is not the answer.

Letting go within activity is a skillful means.

You still do.

We still function for the benefit of others.

We still function for our own happiness and the happiness of those around us.

Letting go.

When there's causes of suffering,

Which are usually impermanence,

Things change.

Things are not the way we wanted them to be.

They changed.

They're impermanent.

Then we let go of the stress that comes up.

Me and mine.

I own this situation.

I want it to be the way I say because it's mine and because me and mine own it.

And when it changes,

Impermanence happens,

But we want it to be permanent and so now we're extremely cranky.

Now we're going to make everyone around us suffer.

We're suffering and everyone around us is suffering.

This is ignorance.

This is called me and mine.

Not understanding impermanence,

Not understanding dukkha,

Ignorance.

Instead we want knowing.

Oh,

Of course it changed.

How could it be any other way?

I don't own this situation.

It is simply phenomena.

Simply happening.

Hold on.

I can't even control my own thought.

How am I going to control the world outside?

Why don't I just let go?

Oh,

As soon as I let go it stopped burning.

Then you're at ease.

Now you're happy and you can generate happiness for people around you.

This is the practice.

We see,

We know reality and we let go.

This is a practical thing to do.

Not a philosophy,

Not a mystical insight with beaming lights and unicorns.

This is a practice here and now.

And the true,

How can you see a practicer?

Well,

They're peaceful.

Practices are peaceful.

Somebody that does the spiritual work is at peace.

So when things go wrong,

Aka change,

Or impermanent,

Which happens all the time,

They're still at ease and peaceful.

Not they're desperately trying to control the way things are.

Not they're freaking out because things are following the natural law,

Like panicking because it's night time.

I'm really crazy today.

I can't believe it's night time.

You just stay away from me.

This is all bad.

It's night time.

I'm sorry,

Are you mad?

Of course it's night time because night time comes after day.

Of course things will change.

This is it.

Change is permanent.

Impermanence is permanent.

Things change.

When we become at ease with this,

It's dropping a burden from your heart.

The heart becomes light.

It's just so easy.

But you have to see it,

Knowing it does not work.

And you have to be able to see it quickly,

Which means your mindfulness has to be full and right.

If your mindfulness is slow,

You already get caught up.

You're already caught up.

So you're already upset.

Once you're upset and the blood becomes acidic,

You're upset.

Period.

You can tell yourself now to cool down,

But you're not going to cool down for an hour or so.

Because now it's gone into your body.

Your mind has affected your body.

Once your mind affects your body,

You are stuck.

You might tell yourself it's cool,

But it's not cool.

You're hot.

You're gone acidic.

You're hot.

It's over.

You're angry.

You lost.

You lost because your mindfulness was not on time.

Your sati was not Mahasati.

You didn't have sati.

Your sati missed the game.

So we cultivate mindfulness to be quick,

To see things all the time,

To see the falling away of things all the time,

To see impermanence and change all the time.

When you see it all the time,

You can't get shocked by it.

You can't get tricked by it.

You can't get deceived by it.

You don't get deceived into thinking things are stable when they're changing.

So there's no suffering to be had because of change.

When there's no suffering to be had because of change,

There's basically no suffering.

Because all suffering comes from change.

The suffering that happens to me and mine always happens because of change.

Otherwise,

If there wasn't change,

Me and mine would be okay because we could make me and mine just how we want it and just leave it like that.

Just get happy and just stay happy.

Sweet.

Me and mine can be permanently happy.

That would be awesome.

But it doesn't go like that.

The happiness ends.

Change happens.

And then we get caught up and we become twisted and we suffer extra.

We're not satisfied with the one arrow.

We have to grab the other arrow of ignorance and start stabbing ourselves with it.

Change is not enough.

Now we need the extra suffering of being ignorant and wanting change to be permanent,

Wanting change to not happen,

Wanting things to stay.

Getting caught up.

So in the practice of cultivating a kind of permanence,

A kind of stability,

We sit down,

We rest the mind on a single object,

We cultivate samadhi.

We begin to see very clearly change.

Change in the body,

Change in the mind.

Happening here and now in real time.

Not after the fact.

After the fact will not cut it.

Hindsight.

Everyone is wise in hindsight.

If only I'd said that,

God,

I would have been slick.

I really should have acted this way.

It's easy.

Hindsight is easy.

Because we've already stepped away and we can see clearly.

Oh,

We see the cycle of existing and falling away.

We see change.

But when you cultivate the skill to be able to see change in the present moment,

Then you have the wisdom of hindsight in the present moment.

Then you can act skillfully.

When you act skillfully,

You don't create suffering for yourself or for those around you.

So you become a blessing to those around you.

And most importantly,

You find happiness.

Happiness is unchanging.

The goal is a happiness that is unchanging.

That's what Nibbāna is.

That is the goal of the work.

To find a happiness that will never end.

Happiness that is unchanging.

Happiness that is not dependent on cause and condition.

In order to find this,

First we have to see the changing nature of everything else.

Everything that is dependent on cause and condition.

So the first universal characteristic of anicca,

Of impermanence,

Of change must be recognized and it must be realized.

First stage of the practice.

Thank you.

Reviews

Clear teaching thank u