How to Know the Knowing of Anicca, Dukkha, Anatta

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There is knowing of Anicca, knowing of Dukkha, and knowing of Anatta, separate from each other. And then there is knowing of all three together, or rather the knowing of vision behind these three designations, in all its implications.

In my experience, it is seeing all implications, top to bottom, is what makes all the difference in the world. I had intellectual understanding of the three marks for years. I even understood shunyata, or thought I did. I even knew that Enlightenment can't be a state. And I still missed the point.

It's all about implications, of all three, together. When you know reality behind the three, and all implications of this reality, then you can be sure you know what is there to be known. Until then, to think "anicca (etc.) is yet to be grasped" would be a valid thought. Why? Because if you don't see how it fits together, or do see how it all fits together but not its implications -- then your knowledge of individual components is obviously not 100% complete yet.

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Right view is the "Four Noble Truths": the only line of thought compatible with the most refined states of phenomenal cognition. Aj Thanissaro's rendering of 'Stress' is useful in this third definition.

With the successive development of Right View, the path successively unfolds: to attain it's successive development, the path has to develop as support. In one instance either one is the result of the other, in another instance it is the cause of the other. Hence clarity and skillfulness go hand in hand, ie. samadhi and punna need to develop as occasions present: either one sharpening-up the other.

Trying to see no-self begs the question of who or what is looking. In the perception of endless transience and stress, the complete absence of any unchanging eternal identity may be noted: simply a fresh identity corresponding to each successive observation. In D.O., contact with, or cognition of, an object results in the arising of a feeling. If attention turns to this feeling, it is understood to be a bodily sensation. Thus identity with the initial object won't arise, though identity with the body may well do so: in which case Stress continues, and the whole tangle of Samsara ensues.

Since this happens unknowingly, the 'unbinding' is simply making this very unknowing fully knowable.

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Bit late, but I would like to contribute.

According to the tiny fraction I know of Buddhism, any material phenomena of this world, shows the four fundamental characteristics (Maha Bhuta) of Patavi (Hardness, Solidity), Apo (Liquidity, Binding or flowing nature), Thejo (Heat) and Vayo (Movement, Air).

These characteristics appear, live and disappear. Billions of these sets of Bhutas appear live and disappear in a fraction of a time. This applies to all materials including our body.

Bhuthas are not permanent (they disappear), so it is Anicca. Bhuthas getting aged and fade away during it's life time. So it is Dukkha. No one or no power in this universe can penetrate or force on the behaviour of these Bhuthas. So it is Anatta.

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