Three Verses, Three Marks of Existence

Verses two hundred seventy seven through two hundred seventy nine of the Dhammapada state three of Buddhism's most concentrated doctrinal formulas in sequence. All conditioned things are impermanent, the first verse declares, and one who sees this with wisdom turns away from suffering. All conditioned things are suffering, the second verse states in the same pattern, again ending with the same turning away through wisdom. All phenomena are without self, the third completes the sequence, again closing with the identical refrain. The three verses share an exact structure, differing only in which quality of existence each names, impermanence, suffering and the absence of a fixed self, before repeating that clear seeing of the quality named leads to release from suffering. Placed together this way, the sequence functions as a compact statement of what later Buddhist tradition calls the three marks of existence, the three characteristics said to apply to every conditioned phenomenon without exception, and the verses' place within the Dhammapada's chapter on the path underscores that the marks are meant as objects of direct meditative seeing rather than as premises for abstract argument.