Note (2024-02-29 01:07)

Please be advised that the following was written or last updated a while ago and may therefore contain outdated information or opinions I no longer hold. 请知悉下文自写作或上次更新已届相当时限,或包含过时信息及已摒弃观点。

An actual translation of Anicca is something more like our inability to maintain things as we like. The inverse, Nicca, is our tendency to believe that things could or should be maintained to our satisfaction. The flow of positive and negative experiences are undependable, indefinite in duration, intensity, and frequency. That our hopes of forcing them to be stable with our mind will be in vain. Anatta is pointing to the inverse of a specific mental event, Atta. Anatta is to point out the error in this way of seeing things. The point is to notice the mental event that represents objects or concept as though they could or should be inherently or essentially controllable/ownable. Nicca, Atta, and Sukha (the opposite of Dukkha) are maladaptive strategies. Not only do they not get us what we want but they maintain the conditions that lead us to keep using them.

https://neuroticgradientdescent.blogspot.com/2020/01/mistranslating-buddha.html?m=1