Tsai Chih-Chung's "The Sayings of Buddha" begin with The Three Imprints of Truth. This is his wording for what is also called The Three Universal Characteristics, or The Three Marks of Existence.
(As discussed in my post "Kamma, Dukkha, and Rebirth: Three Pali Words Your English Dictionary Can't Hold." on 18 October 2026, words are the "finger" and not the "moon". Translation to English of the Pali Buddhist texts use a variety of fingers)
The First Universal Mark - Impermanence.
Impermanence (Anicca) can be said to be "Life is constantly changing". We might say that is just common sense. But the Buddha is teaching a deeper meaning.
We resist change by trying to make temporary things permanent. Both enjoyable (e.g. things we love) and unenjoyable (e.g. he cheated me in that business).
The Second Universal Mark - Dukkha.
These experiences of impermanence bring "unsatisfactory-ness" and "suffering" - either in the case of losing things that we enjoy or in having things that we don't enjoy.
In Tsai Chih-Chung's book, he calls this Mark "Nirvana Is Perfect Tranquility", which departs from the usual dukkha formulation - perhaps because Nirvana is "The Other Shore", the end of suffering. Perhaps he wanted to frame it more positively?
The Third Mark - The Non-self (Anatta)
To attempt to hold on to these impermanent things, we "label" them as good feelings, bad feelings, and neutral feelings. These acts of grasping the impermanent experiences create our memories, forming a constructed "self".
In the teachings, the sequence is:
vedanā (feeling-tone) → taṇhā (craving) → upādāna (clinging) → bhava (becoming) → the constructed "self."
When we understand impermanence and the suffering that grasping (desire) creates, the fleeting experiences simply pass by. When there is no holding, there is non-self (not 'no self').
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