![[info icon]](./../../../img/question_16.gif "Summary: Whether or not a Buddha arises in the world, the three characteristics of existence always remain: impermanence, stress, and not-self.")
"Monks, whether or not there is the arising of Tathagatas, this property stands — this steadfastness of the Dhamma, this orderliness of the Dhamma: All processes are inconstant.
"The Tathagata directly awakens to that, breaks through to that. Directly awakening & breaking through to that, he declares it, teaches it, describes it, sets it forth. He reveals it, explains it, & makes it plain: All processes are inconstant.
"Whether or not there is the arising of Tathagatas, this property stands — this steadfastness of the Dhamma, this orderliness of the Dhamma: All processes are stressful.
"The Tathagata directly awakens to that, breaks through to that. Directly awakening & breaking through to that, he declares it, teaches it, describes it, sets it forth. He reveals it, explains it, & makes it plain: All processes are stressful.
"Whether or not there is the arising of Tathagatas, this property stands — this steadfastness of the Dhamma, this orderliness of the Dhamma: All phenomena are not-self.[1]
"The Tathagata directly awakens to that, breaks through to that. Directly awakening & breaking through to that, he declares it, teaches it, describes it, sets it forth. He reveals it, explains it, & makes it plain: All phenomena are not-self."
Note
- 1.
- The suttas are inconsistent on the question of whether Unbinding counts as a phenomenon (dhamma). Iti 90, among others, states clearly that it is. AN 10.58, however, calls Unbinding the ending of all phenomena. Sn 5.6 quotes the Buddha as calling the attainment of the goal the transcending of all phenomena, just as Sn 4.6 and Sn 4.10 state that the arahant has transcended dispassion, said to be the highest phenomenon. If the former definition applies here, Unbinding would be not-self. If the latter, the word phenomenon (as more inclusive than fabrication) would apply to the non-returner's experience of the Deathless (see AN 9.36). The arahant's experience of Unbinding would be neither self nor not-self, as it lies beyond all designations (see DN 15).
