Dhammapada 277-279

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.

The three marks of existence stated in this sequence of verses became a shared reference point across Buddhist schools that otherwise diverge widely in doctrine and practice. Theravada exegesis treats the three verses as a summary of insight meditation's own goal, since seeing impermanence, suffering and not self directly, rather than merely accepting them as propositions, is what the tradition holds actually produces release. Mahayana traditions inherited the same three marks while developing further doctrines built on the third, the absence of a fixed self, extending it into more elaborate accounts of emptiness that go beyond what the Dhammapada verses themselves state. Comparative readers have also noted that the sequence's refrain, seeing this with wisdom turns one away from suffering, ties all three marks to a single practical outcome rather than treating them as separate metaphysical claims of independent interest, a structure that reflects the Dhammapada's general character as a text organized around what leads to liberation rather than around doctrine argued for its own sake in the manner of a philosophical treatise, a difference commentators regularly point to when explaining why the verses read as instruction for practice rather than as premises in an argument.