Every Buddhist teaching bears the Three Universal Dharma Seals. Without all three
seals the teaching is not a Buddhist teaching. In the Mahayana tradition, the three
seals are impermanence, no self, and no wish. Impermanence and no self belong to
our world of existence, to our limited view of reality. The state of wishlessness—Nirvana—is
the ultimate reality.
The first Dharma seal stresses that all fabricated things are
impermanent. These include our thoughts and feelings, ourselves, our world, and everything
around us. Our thoughts and feelings are in a constant state of flux. One moment
we may be happily laughing and in the next miserable as something that is said deeply
hurts us.
We are constantly changing: Our body cells are continuously regenerating
themselves. We can see this in a general sense when we look in a mirror. What we
see in the mirror is not what we saw a year ago. It is similar, but not exactly the
same. Hence, everything in our world is impermanent and continuously changing.
Knowing
that a flower will not be around forever, or that the person we love will no longer
be with us one day will remind us to cherish our time with them and not take them
for granted. Realizing that a wonderful moment will soon be gone will motivate us
to appreciate it now. We do not want to regret later that we missed an opportunity
because we thought that there would be another chance to enjoy it later.
Understanding
that nothing is permanent will help us to accept the fact that people and the things
we love will not be with us forever. We will thus value them even more. Also, knowing
that everything changes, including unhappiness, gives us the hope that unpleasant
circumstances may improve for the better, that negative conditions may later turn
positive.
The second Dharma seal explains that nothing that exists has an individual
self. When we look in that mirror, we perceive what we think of as "self." We look
a little different than we did a year ago, but we perceive ourselves as being the
same person. But once we think of "me," it becomes natural to think of "you" and
"others." That is how discrimination, with all its inherent ills, starts. Eventually,
we discriminate against everyone and everything. But "I" is composed of minerals
and elements that used to be someone or something else. One hundred years ago, "I"
did not exist. One hundred years from now, "I" will no longer be here, at least not
in this form. Part of the physical "I" may be in a cloud, another part in a flower,
or another part in a new book—no more "I."
At some time, each of us will die. If we
understand that throughout the universe there is only one being and that we are therefore
all part of one another, that we are not individuals, that our component parts will
separate and re-
Hearing that nothing has an individual self might be very difficult to accept. Perhaps
we can appreciate this concept more if we look at an example that demonstrates interconnectivity,
such as pollution. To pollute the environment or to pollute one part of our body
is to pollute and harm the whole of ourselves. When one organ in our body is nourished,
polluted, or hurt, our whole body will be affected similarly. Likewise, being part
of a single, bigger entity, to nourish ourselves is to nourish all beings.
Understanding
that there is no independent self and that we are all interrelated and part of one
another will bring us a sense of togetherness and peace, while viewing ourselves
as individuals can lead to feelings of isolation or superiority. If we feel we are
separate from everything and everyone, we might be unable to connect with others
and will become caught up in self-
The Third Dharma Seal is Nirvana, the state of wishlessness. Not a place or a state
of nothingness, Nirvana is a state that is beyond suffering, beyond craving for worldly
existence or sensual indulgence. It is the extinction of the ideas of self and other,
birth and death, gain and loss. It is the cessation of thinking that one can attain
happiness even though others have not or that the distress of others is their concern,
not mine.
Understanding that the way to ultimate liberation is Nirvana, we will understand
that genuine happiness is not to be found in a materialistic, self-
