Before we begin, how many times did you try to see the photograph above of the couple and what was the experience of it?
1. Did you like it?
2. Did you not like it?
3. You remained indifferent to it
Now, let us understand the nature of everything – both as quality of pathavi, apo, tejo and vayo and the six senses with its sense objects including its:
1. Conscious experience
2. Contact
3. Feeling
4. Perception
5. Preparations or intentions
6. Craving
7. Khandas or aggregates
These are the part of the cover photograph which might have stirred it up.
All of these are beautifully packed in SN25 series under Cakkuvagga. 
Let us take some of the sutta for our analysis
To begin with, let us investigate SIX senses
Cakkhusamphassajā, bhikkhave, vedanā aniccā, vipariṇāmī, aññathābhāvī.
Sotasamphassajā, bhikkhave, vedanā aniccā, vipariṇāmī, aññathābhāvī.
Ghānasamphassajā, bhikkhave, vedanā aniccā, vipariṇāmī, aññathābhāvī.
Jivhāsamphassajā, bhikkhave, vedanā aniccā, vipariṇāmī, aññathābhāvī.
Kāyasamphassajā, bhikkhave, vedanā aniccā, vipariṇāmī, aññathābhāvī.
Manosamphassajā, bhikkhave, vedanā aniccā, vipariṇāmī, aññathābhāvī.
Yo, bhikkhave, ime dhamme evaṁ saddahati adhimuccati, ayaṁ vuccati ‘saddhānusārī, no ca dāni bhāvitattoti. Api ca kho ayam bhikkhave, puggalo niṭṭhaṁ gato, niṭṭhapattoti vadāmi. So dhammaṁ sutvā opānayiko dhammo, samādāya vattati. So imameva ariyamaggam bhāveti, sammādiṭṭhipubbaṅgamaṁ…sammāsamādhi pariyosānaṁ. Ayaṁ vuccati, bhikkhave, ‘saddhānusārī puggalo, sambodhiparāyano’ti.
“O Bhikkhus, the feeling that arises from eye-contact is impermanent, subject to change, and liable to become otherwise.
The feeling that arises from ear-contact is impermanent, subject to change, and liable to become otherwise.
The feeling that arises from nose-contact is impermanent, subject to change, and liable to become otherwise.
The feeling that arises from tongue-contact is impermanent, subject to change, and liable to become otherwise.
The feeling that arises from body-contact is impermanent, subject to change, and liable to become otherwise.
The feeling that arises from mind-contact is impermanent, subject to change, and liable to become otherwise.
Bhikkhus, whoever has faith in these teachings and becomes committed to them—he is called a ‘faith-follower’ (saddhānusārī). Though he has not yet realized the truth himself, I say he is one who is headed for final knowledge.
Hearing the Dhamma, he practices in accordance with it—he cultivates this Noble Eightfold Path, beginning with Right View and ending in Right Concentration.
Such a person is said to be ‘a faith-follower who is bound for awakening’ (sambodhiparāyano).”
🧠 Etymological and Conceptual Analysis
🔹 Vedanā from Six Sense-Contacts
Each line refers to vedanā (feeling/sensation) that arises when a specific sense faculty (indriya) comes into contact (phassa) with a corresponding sense object, resulting in contact-born feelings.
🔸 Aniccā = Impermanent as in arising & ceasing
From a- (not) + nicca (constant, stable, enduring)
👉 So: not constant, i.e., arising and ceasing, not enduring
🔸 Vipariṇāmī = “Liable to deterioration” or “subject to undesired alteration”
🧬 Etymology: Vi- = apart, away from, wrong, opposite
Pariṇāmī = from pariṇāma = transformation, change (from √nam = to bend, incline)
But vipariṇāma specifically means decay, perversion, or turning into something contrary to one’s wishes.
Vipariṇāmī = liable to decay, not turning out as desired, disappointing. and this fits with the insight:
“Yaṁ pi icchaṁ na labhati tampi dukkhaṁ” – Not getting what one desires is suffering. (Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta)
So the deeper thrust is: Not just that the feeling changes
But that it betrays expectation – it doesn’t stay pleasant, it devolves, degenerates – which is unsatisfactory.
🔸 Aññathābhāvī = Liable to become otherwise
Añña = other; Thā = in that way; Bhāvī = becoming (from √bhū)
👉 “Becoming otherwise,” “turning into something else,” often unexpectedly or unpredictably
This is slightly broader than vipariṇāmī:
It points to instability, transformation, and unpredictability—not only toward suffering, but toward alien or foreign states.
🔬 Sense Base by Sense Base Breakdown
Cakkhuṁ – The Eye
✅ Anicca:
The biological eye deteriorates: from youth to age, from clarity to cataract, from color sensitivity to fading vision.
It arises due to causes (physical matter, blood flow, nervous system) and will cease when those causes deteriorate.
Even within a day, sight dulls from tiredness, light, strain.
❌ Vipariṇāmī:
We desire to see clearly always, but, sight diminishes with age.
Sometimes we see what we don’t want to see (e.g., deformity, ugliness, death).
We might long for a beautiful form, but see it distorted or denied.
That’s vipariṇāma—things change contrary to expectation or desire.
🔄 Aññathābhāvī:
The eye doesn’t just decay—it transforms in character and becomes painful (irritation, infection).
Optical illusions mislead us and it even leads to danger, pulling us toward greed or aversion.
Sotaṁ – The Ear
✅ Anicca: Hearing comes and goes, even in moments: silence → sound → silence.
Ears age; sounds become muffled or lost.
❌ Vipariṇāmī:
We want to hear sweet things, but we may hear criticism, insult, painful news. Thus, what was once soothing may become irritating.
🔄 Aññathābhāvī:
Sounds confuse, distract, mislead and hearing can cause joy one moment, and heartbreak the next.
Ghānaṁ – The Nose
✅ Anicca: Smell arises briefly and fades. It also deteriorates (cold, aging).
❌ Vipariṇāmī: Fragrance turns rancid. We want pleasant aroma but get stench.
🔄 Aññathābhāvī: Smell triggers memories, cravings, disgust. The same perfume once loved may become repulsive.
Jivhā – The Tongue
✅ Aniccā: Taste arises only when conditions meet: food, saliva, healthy tongue and quickly fades.
❌ Vipariṇāmī: Desire for taste leads to overeating, heaviness and sickness. Favorite food becomes tasteless when ill.
🔄 Aññathābhāvī: Tongue, intended for nourishment, becomes a source of craving and getting into medical issues. Food we love may harm us or cause attachment.
Kāyo – The Body
✅ Anicco: Constant flux—temperature, pressure, pain, pleasure while Skin, muscles, organs all degrade daily basis
❌ Vipariṇāmī: What we want (youth, strength, beauty) turns to wrinkles, illness, decay.
As the Buddha said in SN 22.1: “Yaṁ piyarūpaṁ sātarūpaṁ taṁ vipariṇāmaṁ paṭikaṅkhitabbaṁ”
“What is dear and pleasant is to be expected to change.”
🔄 Aññathābhāvī: The same body becomes a burden, source of shame, or prison of desire. Identity shifts: pride → shame, pleasure → pain.
Mano – The Mind
✅ Anicco: Thoughts arise and vanish rapidly and mental states are never static.
❌ Vipariṇāmī: We want clarity, peace, but experience agitation, dullness, chaos.
🔄 Aññathābhāvī: Mind becomes alien: we don’t understand ourselves, feel conflicted.
Craving, hatred, delusion take over, displacing wholesome intentions.
🧘♂️ Practical Reflection: How the Noble Disciple Contemplates
The Saddhānusārī contemplates:
“This eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind—
they are not stable, they are not under my control, they change in ways I don’t want, they lead me to dukkha.”
This deep faith in the Dhamma is not mere belief—it is trust in the Buddha’s diagnosis that even the internal sense bases themselves are unreliable, unstable, ungovernable.
🪞 Summary Table
| Sense Base | Anicca | Vipariṇāmī | Aññathābhāvī |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eye | Vision fades, weakens | Doesn’t always show what we wish | Leads to unwholesome reactions |
| Ear | Hearing fluctuates | Displeasing sounds arise | May cause grief, joy, delusion |
| Nose | Smells fade/change | Desired scents decay | Leads to craving or aversion |
| Tongue | Taste is short-lived | Food becomes unsatisfactory | Trigger for overindulgence |
| Body | Constant sensation flux | Desired comfort becomes pain | Identity confusion |
| Mind | Thought is fleeting | Wants peace, gets restlessness | Alien states emerge unbidden |
Let us now deal with four dhatu’s
🌊 Why does the Buddha say even the elements are anicca, vipariṇāmī, aññathābhāvī?
Because he is dismantling the deepest assumptions of permanence, satisfaction, and identity. Let’s go one by one.
Pathavīdhātu – Earth Element (Solidity, hardness, form)
🪨 Why it seems reliable: Appears solid, permanent: bones, mountains, houses.
🧠 Why Buddha calls it: Anicca: Bodies decay, land erodes, teeth fall.
Vipariṇāmī: What we hope will last—youth, strength—disintegrates.
Aññathābhāvī: The same earth gives pleasure one day, and disease or danger another (e.g., earthquake, injury).
Āpodhātu – Water Element (Cohesion, fluidity)
💧 Seems nourishing, life-sustaining.
But: Anicca: Moisture dries, tears fall, fluids rot.
Vipariṇāmī: Desired states (e.g., freshness) become sweat, pus, decay.
Aññathābhāvī: Love may turn to disgust; the body’s fluids betray us (e.g., illness).
Tejodhātu – Fire Element (Heat, digestion, temperature)
🔥 Seen as vital force (warmth, digestion, energy)
But: Anicca: Metabolism slows, energy fades, warmth dies.
Vipariṇāmī: What is comfortable becomes feverish or cold.
Aññathābhāvī: Fire warms—but also burns. Same heat may become harm and in high fever which may lead to death
Vāyodhātu – Air Element (Movement, motion, pressure)
🌬️ Breath, movement, circulation—signs of life
But: Anicca: Breath ceases. Motion weakens.
Vipariṇāmī: Breathing once calm becomes labored or panicked.
Aññathābhāvī: Wind within can become pain, pressure, restlessness.
Ākāsadhātu – Space Element (Gap, openness, cavity)
🌌 Space is vast, empty, non-resisting
But: Anicca: Cavities collapse (lungs, veins), openness closes (nostrils, pores).
Vipariṇāmī: What we expect to be open becomes restricted or suffocating.
Aññathābhāvī: Space that supports can also isolate, disconnect.
Viññāṇadhātu – Consciousness Element (Cognition, knowing)
🧠 The subtlest base: “I am conscious” is often clung to as self.
But: Anicca: Consciousness arises and passes with conditions (eye + form → eye-consciousness; ear + sound → ear-consciousness). It’s momentary.
Vipariṇāmī: Joyful states become sorrow. Clear awareness becomes dull.
Aññathābhāvī: Consciousness turns alien—dreams, trauma, obsession, madness.
🔥 To Expose the Illusion of Permanence, Control, and Satisfaction – Each of the three marks speaks to a specific delusion:
| Delusion | Countered by |
|---|---|
| “This will last.” → Niccatā-saññā (permanence) | ❌ Anicca – it will perish |
| “This will satisfy.” → Sukhattasaññā (satisfying self) | ❌ Vipariṇāmī – it turns painful |
| “This is stable or mine.” → Attasaññā (identity) | ❌ Aññathābhāvī – it becomes other |
This triad dismantles nicca-saṅkhā, sukha-saṅkhā, and attā-saṅkhā — the three perversions of perception.
🧘 Because Seeing These Truths Leads to Dispassion (Nibbidā)
When one fully sees that even the most fundamental “building blocks”:
Cannot be controlled,
Change in ways we don’t wish,
Turn alien or become something we fear,
One naturally becomes disenchanted.
“Nibbindati, virajjati, vimuccati.” (SN 22.59) – Disenchanted, he lets go. Detached, he is liberated.. This is the direct path to nibbāna.
🕊️ 5. Because Faith in These Truths = Entry Into the Stream
“Yo, bhikkhave, ime dhamme evaṁ saddahati adhimuccati…”
“Whoever has faith and resolve in these phenomena…” Such a person may not yet see it with wisdom, but trusts the Buddha’s vision is called a Saddhānusārī — a faith-follower. Has entered the domain of the noble ones (sappurisabhūmi), and will inevitably realize sotāpattiphala (the fruit of stream-entry).
🪞 Summary Table: Why All Six Elements Are Anicca, Vipariṇāmī, Aññathābhāvī
| Element | Anicca (Impermanent) | Vipariṇāmī (Turns against desire) | Aññathābhāvī (Becomes otherwise) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Earth (solidity) | Bones decay, skin ages | Strength becomes weakness | Once beauty, now burden |
| Water (cohesion) | Moisture dries, fluids rot | Nourishment becomes infection | Loved → loathed |
| Fire (heat) | Warmth fades, energy dies | Comfort becomes fever | Warmth → burning |
| Air (movement) | Breath stops, motion halts | Calm becomes panic | Joyful movement → agitation |
| Space (gap) | Cavities collapse | Freedom becomes isolation | Spaciousness → disorientation |
| Consciousness | Arises & passes | Clarity becomes confusion | Self-awareness → delusion |
🧭 Final Insight
By placing even the six elements under the triple marks, the Buddha: Destroys all bases of eternalism, materialism, and self-view. Prevents the meditator from grasping even at the finest level of experience (viññāṇadhātu).
Builds the foundation for vipassanā, leading through nibbidā → virāga → vimutti.
📖 Scenario
A man has longed for the “woman of his dreams.”and finally gets to meets her. Infatuated by her shapely body and sweet talks, he proposes her and to his luck, she says yes to his marriage proposal. Due to that he feels ecstatic, fulfilled, deeply attached to her not losing focus even for a minute.
Let’s now apply the three universal characteristics to this moment—at each layer of his experience.
🧠 I. The Initial Feeling of Joy (Vedanā)
He feels: “I have everything I wanted. She’s mine. My life is complete.”
🔹 Anicca – This joy is impermanent – arises and passes away
This rush of emotion is based on contact, thoughts, expectations and will fade. The chemicals will balance.
Joy becomes routine → boredom → new longing arises on how to enjoy her company
“Yampicchaṁ na labhati tampi dukkhaṁ” – What is wanted, once obtained, does not stay.
🔸 Vipariṇāmī – Joy becomes pain if clung to
If she becomes less attentive, he feels neglected and wants her attention and when she criticizes him, the joy reverses into anger or shame based upon the situation. If she becomes ill, distant, or changes emotionally, his fantasy crumbles to the floor. That which is dear and pleasing is always subject to change in the sense of decay and diseases contrary to how one desires.
🔻 Aññathābhāvī – The moment becomes something else
That very woman who brought joy may become a source of hurt as she starts to lose shape while giving rise to children. Eventhough she tries sufficiently to keep up in shape, the body keeps on getting deteriorated eventhough not fully visible, but can be made of. At the same time, circumstances shift: to different subjects as in job/work, family responsibilities and ownership, money and wealth making, taking care of children etc., This leads to conflicts in mind relating to how to enjoy her v/s how to manage these responsibilities.
Or even without conflict—he may find his own mind drifting, surprised by boredom or lust elsewhere.
“It became otherwise—not as I imagined, not as I wanted, not as I assumed it would remain.”
🧍♂️ II. The Perception of the Woman
He perceives her as: “Beautiful, kind, perfect for me, fulfilling my needs.”
🔹 Anicca – Her body, voice, and mind will change
Her looks will age, skin will sag, voice will tire and her emotional tone today may shift tomorrow including her interest in him may wane or transform.
“Rūpaṁ aniccaṁ, saññā aniccā” — Perception itself is impermanent. (SN 22.15)
🔸 Vipariṇāmī – Expectations lead to pain
He expects her to always be supportive, attractive, loyal and the moment she acts differently—he is disappointed or resentful. Even when she tries, she cannot always meet his internal fantasy which leads to disappointment is getting baked into craving.
🔻 Aññathābhāvī – She becomes “another”
The “dream woman” slowly reveals ordinary human traits: fear, moodiness, desires, flaws and she changes: new beliefs, illnesses, ambitions. Even in success, the relationship transforms beyond the original script. “This is not what I signed up for” becomes the inner lament.
🧠 III. The Self-Image of the Man
He thinks: “I am successful. I am loved. I am a husband. This defines me now.”
🔹 Anicca – His role is impermanent
“Husband” is not a fixed essence. It’s a conditioned role, dependent on agreement, behavior, legal status, emotional connection. If any of those shift, the self-identity collapses.
🔸 Vipariṇāmī – Self-pride becomes fear or sorrow
The more he clings to “I am her man,” the more he’s vulnerable to anything that threatens it: infidelity, divorce, death, distance and even minor conflict shakes this identity.
🔻 Aññathābhāvī – He feels like “someone else”
Over time, he may feel lost in his role, or betrayed by what he thought it would bring. He may wake up one day with the question: “What have I become?” This is the deepest layer of aññathābhāva: even the self becomes otherwise.
🧘 Why the Buddha Taught This
To one with wise reflection, this isn’t depressing—it’s liberating. Because the wise person reflects:
“This joy, this love, this relationship is conditioned. I can enjoy it with awareness—but not cling to it as mine, me, or lasting.” They fully feel the love, but also hold it lightly, knowing:
It is anicca: it changes as in arising and passing
It is vipariṇāmī: it may turn against expectation
It is aññathābhāvī: it becomes something else
Therefore, they don’t suffer when change happens.
This is the path of the saddhānusārī and dhammānusārī—those who live with wise faith and investigation, destined for awakening.
🪞Summary Table: Marriage Proposal & 3 Marks
| Aspect | Anicca | Vipariṇāmī | Aññathābhāvī |
|---|---|---|---|
| Joy of acceptance | Fades quickly | Turns to clinging, fear | Becomes ordinary or stressful |
| Woman’s image | Body, mind change | Doesn’t fulfill fantasy | Appears as different over time |
| Self-identity | “Husband” is unstable | Role burdens or traps | Becomes alien to self |