All we wish to do hear is to realize that this thing call the Path will have come to be the True Path just as soon as there arises insight into transience, unsatisfactoriness, and non-self. As long as this insight has not yet arisen, it is still not the true Path, but only the very beginning of it. So if a person has not yet gained this insight into the three characteristics, he still does now know the Path to be walked. Instead he goes off in search of things which are transient, unsatisfactory, and selfless more than ever, and his life becomes more and moer unsatisfactory. But if a person does come to see that all compounds are transient, unsatisfactory, and selfless, his mind will seek to avoid those compounds. He will seek to transcend them, to get above them, so that they cannot harm him. This is the true Path, the Path that leads away from unsatisfactoriness and towards the overcoming of it.
So it is up to each one of us to develop the true Path based on insight and try to gain understanding of the transience, unsatisfactoriness, and non-self of compounds, to see them as inherently unsatisfactory, as nothing but unsatisfactoriness, as the unsatisfactory condition itself, to be avoided at all costs. This seen, behaviour will thenceforth be free of compounding with craving and attachment. Once transience, unsatisfactoriness, and non-self have been seen, craving and attachment cannot arise. All that is left is the insight. Insight serves to prevent the arising of craving and attachment. So this life can be one with the Path. Life can be in itself a good steady progress; it can be one and the same as walking the Path.
I hope you will all now take a greater interest in these three words "transcience, unsatisfactoriness, non-self". Don't just go memorising someone's explanation of them. See for yourself that things which go on perpetually combining and changing possess these characteristics. When a person does not realize the true nature of things, he unwittingly takes them as lasting, worth-while, selves belonging to himself. You can imagine the trouble that then results. It's like taking a thing with certain properties and trying to force it to have different properties. It cannot be done any more that fire cannot forced to be without heat. The result is both comic and tragic.
So it is up to each one of us to develop the true Path based on insight and try to gain understanding of the transience, unsatisfactoriness, and non-self of compounds, to see them as inherently unsatisfactory, as nothing but unsatisfactoriness, as the unsatisfactory condition itself, to be avoided at all costs. This seen, behaviour will thenceforth be free of compounding with craving and attachment. Once transience, unsatisfactoriness, and non-self have been seen, craving and attachment cannot arise. All that is left is the insight. Insight serves to prevent the arising of craving and attachment. So this life can be one with the Path. Life can be in itself a good steady progress; it can be one and the same as walking the Path.
I hope you will all now take a greater interest in these three words "transcience, unsatisfactoriness, non-self". Don't just go memorising someone's explanation of them. See for yourself that things which go on perpetually combining and changing possess these characteristics. When a person does not realize the true nature of things, he unwittingly takes them as lasting, worth-while, selves belonging to himself. You can imagine the trouble that then results. It's like taking a thing with certain properties and trying to force it to have different properties. It cannot be done any more that fire cannot forced to be without heat. The result is both comic and tragic.
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