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The Three Characteristics of the Conditioned

ตีณิ สงฺขตสฺส สงฺขตลกฺขณานิ

Three marks of everything conditioned — its arising is evident, its passing is evident, and while it persists its change is evident — along with the marks of the unconditioned.

4 points

In the Cūḷa Vagga of the Book of Threes, the Buddha teaches that the conditioned has three characteristics: its arising is evident, its vanishing is evident, and while it persists its alteration is evident.

In the next discourse he gives the characteristics of the unconditioned as the opposite: no arising is evident, no vanishing is evident, and while it persists no alteration is evident.

This offers another angle on the three characteristics: rather than asking whether something is permanent, it looks directly at its process — it arises, it changes, and it ends.

  1. 1

    Arising is evident อุปฺปาโท ปญฺญายติ

    Conditioned things have an observable beginning, arising when their conditions come together.

    Applying it in daily life

    When an emotion arises, trace when and why it began. You'll see it hasn't always been there.

  2. 2

    Vanishing is evident วโย ปญฺญายติ

    Conditioned things have an observable end, ceasing when their conditions are exhausted.

    Applying it in daily life

    Recall a pain you once thought would never pass, and notice where it is now.

  3. 3

    Alteration while persisting is evident ฐิตสฺส อญฺญถตฺตํ ปญฺญายติ

    Even while it remains, a thing is not static but changes from moment to moment.

    Applying it in daily life

    The people you know, your body and your relationships are all "still here but changing". Seeing this frees you from clinging to old images of things.

  4. 4

    The marks of the unconditioned — no arising, no vanishing, no alteration อสงฺขตสฺส อสงฺขตลกฺขณานิ

    The unconditioned shows no arising, no vanishing and no alteration while persisting — which other discourses identify as nibbāna.

    Applying it in daily life

    This is here for understanding the overall picture. Read alongside "Nibbāna", which gathers the definitions from the discourses.

Try it in daily life

Try it with today's heaviest emotion: when did it arise, how did its intensity change while it lasted, and when did it end? Even if it returns, that is a new arising, not the same one lingering.

Seeing this way means you needn't fight emotions — just watch them pass according to their nature. The third characteristic matters most, because we tend to assume what "still exists" is "unchanging", when it is changing the whole time it exists.

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Sources in the Tipiṭaka

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