The three ground rules of Zen (and Buddhism) are the core facts of Reality. Traditionally called 'the three marks of existence', they are how things work in the moments, days, and flow of our lives and the lives of all sentient beings and existences. They are self evident and irrefutable. If you pick up the practice of clarifying them in your life and of healing your relationship with them, they can illuminate your confusion and difficulties. Alignment with them can bring clarity and peace.
Ground Rule #1: Everything Changes. This is stating the obvious. There is nothing in the universe that doesn't conform to this: atoms, rocks, trees, people, dogs and cats, suns and moons and stars. Things arise and come into existence, they hang out and durate for a time, and then they go bye-bye. They are like clouds forming from vapor and then dissipating. When you can see this completely, your attachment to the apparently 'solid' and fixed nature of things can subtly shift, and flowing with life can become easier. How we deal with change, transition, and evanescence is a cornerstone of self examination and insight.
Ground Rule # 2: Life is Suffering. This is stating the obvious but can be distasteful. If you are alive you will suffer. There is no way out of this. Much human folly is involved in either clinging to suffering or keeping it at bay. The Zen path acknowledges, invites, engages, welcomes, and befriends suffering. This movement toward suffering is done not only for oneself, but for the benefit of 'all beings', for everything that exists, which is the altruistic ground of Buddhist life. Birth, old age, disease, and death are the source of living. Welcoming suffering is the beginning of a path to Great Joy....May All Being Be Happy!
Ground Rule #3: There is no Self. This is stating the not so obvious and perplexing. The Zen path of awakening hopefully helps it become obvious, which paradoxically it always is. Nothing in reality exists alone or has something you can point to as a separate reality. So the matrix of life, the inter-being, the universal nature, Buddha nature, big mind, sky mind, soft mind, True Self.....which are the notions we use to point at something outside of thought and conceptual reality....this is the essence of you and life. In Zen we learn to treasure each person and thing as Buddha, as a point of unity and difference in the cosmic net of Reality. We also emphasize the ordinariness of life, the nothing special quality of reality. No glitter, no big deal, just eat what's on your plate.
3 Marks of Existence
