Buddhist Beliefs about the Universe and Human Beings » Anicca, Anatta and the Five Khandhas

Three marks of human life

In Do Humans Have a Soul? Human Nature and Physicalism, you saw that Buddhists believe there is no fixed, unchanging soul. This lesson explains that belief. The Buddha taught that three things are true of every human life. Buddhists call them the three marks of existence. The Dhammapada sums them up in verses 277-279: everything that arises is impermanent, everything that arises is unsatisfactory, and all things are without a self.

Key terms:

• Three marks of existence: anicca, dukkha and anatta, the three features of all life.
• Dukkha: suffering, or the sense that life never fully satisfies.
• Anatta: 'no self'. The teaching that a person has no fixed, permanent self or soul.
• Khandhas: 'heaps' or 'bundles'. The five changing parts that make up a person.

Buddhists believe the three marks are linked. Because everything is impermanent (anicca), they say, holding on to things as if they will last leads to suffering (dukkha). And because everything about a person is impermanent, they believe there is no fixed self (anatta). You will study dukkha in more depth in The Four Noble Truths: Dukkha and Tanha.

The five khandhas: what a person is made of

If there is no soul, what is a human being? The Buddha's answer was the five khandhas (often called the five aggregates). A person is five 'heaps' of changing parts working together. Learn both sets of English names.

• Body (also called form): the physical body and its senses.
• Feelings (also called sensation): the pleasant, unpleasant or neutral feel of each experience.
• Recognition (also called perception): knowing what something is and giving it a name.
• Motivation (also called mental formations): the thoughts, wishes, habits and choices that drive what we do.
• Conscious awareness (also called consciousness): being aware of what is happening through the senses and in the mind.

Only the first khandha is physical. The other four are mental. All five are changing all the time.

A well-known Buddhist text, the Questions of King Milinda, explains this with a chariot. The monk Nagasena asked the king whether the chariot was its wheels, its axle or its pole. The king agreed that it was none of these on its own. 'Chariot' is just a useful name for the parts when they are put together. In the same way, Nagasena said, his own name was only a label for the five khandhas.

Why Buddhism rejects an immortal soul

Many people in the Buddha's time believed that each person has an eternal soul. The Buddha did not accept this, and Buddhists give these reasons:

• Nothing permanent can be found. According to Buddhist tradition, the Buddha went through the five khandhas one by one in an early sermon to his first five followers. Each one changes and each one is tied up with dukkha, so none of them can be called 'my self'.
• Anicca covers every part of a person. Buddhists believe everything that makes up a person is impermanent, so an immortal soul would not fit.
• Belief in a fixed self feeds suffering. Thinking in terms of 'me' and 'mine' leads to selfishness and clinging, and these lead to dukkha.

Anatta does not mean that you do not exist. Buddhists still say 'I' and 'me' as useful labels, like 'chariot'. What they reject is a fixed, unchanging self behind the label.

No soul, but not physicalism

Remember, physicalism says that the real world is nothing more than the physical world. Like physicalists, Buddhists say there is no immortal soul. But Buddhism is not physicalism:

How there can be rebirth when there is no soul is taught in Samsara, Kamma and Rebirth in Buddhism.

How the teaching shapes Buddhist attitudes

• Less clinging. Looks, possessions and status will all change. Buddhists try to enjoy them without holding on tightly, so that losing them hurts less.
• Less selfishness. If there is no fixed 'me' to defend, there is less reason for pride, greed and taking offence.
• More compassion. Every being is made of changing parts and every being meets dukkha. Seeing this helps Buddhists to feel karuna for others.
• Facing change calmly. Ageing, illness and loss are expected, so Buddhists try to meet them with acceptance.
• Hope. Buddhists believe nobody is fixed as 'a bad person', so anyone can change for the better.

Buddhists do not all stress the same points. Theravada Buddhists focus on the three marks and the five khandhas as set out here. Mahayana Buddhists accept these too, and go further. They teach sunyata (emptiness): nothing at all has a fixed nature of its own. Many Mahayana Buddhists also teach that every being has Buddha-nature, the potential to become enlightened.

Exam-style question

Paper 1 style question. Parts (a) and (b) test AO1. Parts (c) and (d) test AO1 and AO2.

(a) Identify three things that some religious people believe make up a human being. [3 marks]

(b) Choose one religion. Outline two beliefs about the nature of human beings in this religion. [4 marks]

(c) Explain why some religious people do not believe that human beings have an immortal soul. [6 marks]

(d) 'No part of a human being lasts for ever.' Evaluate this statement, showing you have considered different points of view. In your answer you should refer to at least one religion. [12 marks]