Core Philosophical Doctrines

1. The Three Marks of Existence (Trilakshana)

The Buddha’s radical description of reality:

• Anicca (Impermanence): All conditioned phenomena—physical and mental—are in constant flux. Nothing lasts.
• Dukkha (Unsatisfactoriness): Because everything is impermanent, clinging to anything leads to suffering.
• Anatta (Non-Self): There is no permanent, unchanging, independent “soul” or “self” (atman) within any phenomenon. What we call “I” is a dynamic, ever-changing process of five aggregates (see below).

2. The Five Aggregates (Pancha Skandhas)

The components that constitute what we mistakenly call a “self”:

1. Form (Rupa): The physical body and material form.
2. Sensation (Vedana): Feeling tones (pleasant, unpleasant, neutral).
3. Perception (Samjna): Recognition and labeling of sensory input.
4. Mental Formations (Samskara): Volitional thoughts, habits, predispositions, karma-forming impulses.
5. Consciousness (Vijnana): Sensory and mental awareness.

• The Clinging Aggregates: Suffering arises when we cling to these five aggregates as “me” or “mine.”

3. Dependent Origination (Pratityasamutpada)

The Buddha’s profound teaching on causality, explaining how suffering arises and how it can cease. It is often presented as a 12-link chain:

• In Forward Order (How suffering arises): Ignorance -> Mental Formations -> Consciousness -> Mind & Body -> Six Senses -> Contact -> Feeling -> Craving -> Clinging -> Becoming -> Birth -> Aging & Death.
• In Reverse Order (How suffering ceases): With the cessation of ignorance, mental formations cease… all the way to the cessation of aging and death (Nirvana).
• Core Principle: “When this is, that is. This arising, that arises. When this is not, that is not. This ceasing, that ceases.” Everything exists only in relation to, and is dependent upon, other things.

4. Karma and Rebirth

• Karma: Literally “action.” It is the law of moral cause and effect. Volitional/intentional actions (of body, speech, and mind) create seeds that ripen in this life or a future life. It is not fate, but a natural law.
• Rebirth: Driven by craving and karma, consciousness flows from one life to another like a flame passing from one candle to another. There is no permanent soul that transmigrates; it is a continuum of consciousness and karmic energy (like a wave in the ocean).