If one doesn't know the notion of "impermanence, suffering and non-self", can one see it by one's self?
I know that I don't need to "force" myself to see impermanence: but do I need to keep in mind "impermanence, suffering and non-self" when practising?
EDIT: How much do i need to keep in mind "impermance..", because if it is to low, one can see it but not realise it, if it is to high, one can intellectualize it.
According to my present (non-sectarian) teacher, the way the Three Marks are to be used is not simply as dogma to be mindful of, but rather as a tool for enquiry into our psyche -- our attachments, or preconceptions.
The way to use Three Marks for enquiry into preconceptions is to try accepting one Mark at a time and see what resistance it causes.
For example, you may spend a week trying to accept the truth of impermanence with all its implications. Does it highlight the cases of you trying to solve any problem "once, completely, and forever"? Knowing that a stable state can't be realized -- does it make all your efforts seem futile? Can you get at peace with doing your best despite this futility? Keep saying "everything is temporary" and keep watching yourself in real situations. All kinds of preconceptions, imprints and deep-lying assumptions will come up.
Similarly, spend a week applying the truth of suffering to your situations at hand. Can you see micro-suffering hiding in millisecond-level activities? Frustration of having to apply effort. Unmet expectations. Do you secretly crave for perfect ease, with reality always matching your wishes? Do you secretly hope existence can ever be effortless? Same thing here, keep telling yourself "life is suffering" with regards to real life situations and see what reaction it causes in you. Is there an area that rebels against the inescapable universal suffering? If so, that's the preconception you need to go through.
The same way, spend another week contemplating the truth of corelessness or no-I amidst real situations. If there is no "I", where do my choices are coming from now? What is the source of my thoughts now? Are my convictions and my values really mine or could this thing called "I" be an accumulations of formulas picked up over time? Am I really as all-important as I have always assumed to be? Do people really care what I do, how I do it and even whether I exist? What if free will is illusion and all my actions are predetermined? What if life is completely pointless and has no purpose and no meaning? Watch yourself as you try these thoughts on. In your mind, is accepting pointlessness of life connected with fear of ambiguity, essentially fear of taking responsibility? Is there deep-lying conviction that something you deem of value is trully of absolute importance? If so, that's your preconception, a piece of your ego, look at it carefully.
So, try each of these on for a week: "everything is temporary", "life is suffering" and "in the grand scheme of things I don't really exist, what I think is my life is just a ripple on the surface of reality" and see what comes up. When Buddhism talks about "attachments" that's what these are, now perhaps for the first time you can meet them face to face.
Eventually, the Three Marks should be fully accepted, with all their implications. Interestingly, accepting each Mark has a surprising effect, almost the opposite of what you'd expect:
Altogether, accepting Three Marks of Existence liberates us from Samsara and connects with Spontaneous Perfection of Unconditioned Nirvana.
This is something you cannot force. Any form of force is based on craving or aversion hence you loose the balance of your mind.
Through meditation you can realize "impermanence, suffering and non-self" at an experiential level. This is not a concept of thought or notion of it.
I would say it is essential to always keep in mind the 3 universal characteristics.
When meditating, you instantly realize that the breath moving in and out of the body, constantly changing/fleeting, you realize that the nature of everything is impermanent, just like the breath.
Again in meditation when you want the mind to calm down and relax, but it doesn't, this causes suffering....but it's not the mind that is the problem which leads to suffering, it's simply that you wish the mind to calm down and be "different" to what it actually is in that moment, again this shows you the nature of suffering, we all want things to be perfect, but that simply isn't the nature of life or existence. ( The moment is what it is, nothing more, nothing less)
And finally, non-self. Because everything changes, because everything is impermanent, nothing remains the same. We are not the same as we were when we were children and we aren't the same now as we will be in old age, nothing can be said to be or have "self"
I hope this has helped.
Metta"
Depends on the person's potential and faculties. For some who's already practiced the Path for many lives, s/he'd naturally understand the 3 characteristics. But for some who never had previous exposure, it's important to learn about the 3 characteristics from an experienced teacher or from the sutras/suttas just so that one won't mis-understand these concepts.
The problem with us worldlings is that while we might gain a conceptual understanding of the teaching, we rarely apply them in our daily life. We think about these things when we're at the temple or when we study Dhamma books, but when seeing a woman with a young voluptous body walking by, all we have in mind at that moment is the smell of her perfume and her sexy curves. We'd tend to forget that that beauty is also subjected to impermanence, suffering, and non-self. She will gets old, sick, and eventually die.
Traditionally, I read that both eternalism and nihilism are false concepts.
