ABSTRACT
It is a basic tenet of Buddhism that ‘all conditioned things’, in other words all the factors of our normal experience, share three features, or ‘marks’ (lakshaṇa). They are (1) impermanent, (2) ill, (3) ‘not-self’. Even on simple reflection this statement is bound to strike us as at least partly true. As the marks are better understood, some emotional resistance becomes inevitable, and complete conviction requires both meditation and philosophical reflection.
