Buddhism by the Numbers

The Three Dharma Seals

Impermanence, Non-self, Nirvana

• From the point of view of time we say “impermanence” and from the point of view of space we say “non-self.”
• It is not impermanence that makes us suffer. What makes us suffer is wanting things to be permanent.
• Nothing is ever lost. Nothing is ever gained.
• The second dharma seal is non-self. Nothing has a separate existence or separate self. Everything has to inter-be with everything else.
• When we see that everyone and everything belongs to the same stream of life, our suffering will vanish.
• Non-self means that you are made of elements which are not you.
• Nirvana is the third dharma seal. It is the ground of being.
• “The dharma I offer you is only a raft to help you cross over to the other shore,” said the Buddha.
• Nirvana is the extinction of all notions.
• Happy Continuation
• Eight concepts: birth, death, permanence, dissolution, coming, going, one, many.
• The practice to end attachment of these eight ideas is called the eight no’s or the middle way.
• Experience always goes before ideas.
• Any teaching that does not bear the mark of the Three Dharma Seals, the Four Holy Truths, and the Eightfold Path is not authentically Buddhist.
• Two Relevancies
  1. Relevance to essence – The three dharma seals: impermanence, non-self, Nirvana.
  2. Relevance must fit the circumstances.
• Four Standards of Truth
  1. The worldly
  2. The person
  3. Healing
  4. The absolute – No self
• The Four Reliances
  1. Teaching
  2. Discourses
  3. Meaning
  4. Insight

Based on the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh

Photo credit: Benn Bell