Impermanence

• Impermanence, known as "anicca" in the Pali language spoken by the Buddha, is one of the basic premises of Buddhism. Everything is passing and ephemeral, and the suffering experienced in the world is primarily the result of clinging to that which is destined to disappear. Some elements pass in a fraction of a second while others abide for millions of years, but eventually everything, from snowflakes to mountains to planets, passes away. This was one of the realizations that allowed the Buddha to release his desires and thus to alleviate his own suffering.
  
  

Selflessness

• The second primary realization of Buddhism is the idea of selflessness, or "anatta" in Pali. On an everyday level, a person appears to exist, and he goes about his business as though he did exist, and clings to the belief in himself more strongly than his belief in anything else. The Buddha realized that, at a deeper level of reality, the self is nothing more than an energy pattern that is made up of other things, and that it, like everything else, will cease to exist. Learning to release the clinging to the self and to surrender identification with the self is one of the primary teachings of Buddhism.
  
  

Suffering

• Suffering, or "dukkha" in Pali, is the basis of the First Noble Truth of Buddhism: "life is suffering." This dictum tends to sound nihilistic and depressing to Western ears, but was understood by the Buddha to be an expression of the inherent dissatisfaction that all living things experience. Some people have argued that "lack" or "dissatisfaction" might be a better translation of "dukkha" than "suffering." According to the Second Noble Truth, suffering is caused by desire and aversion, or the wish that reality was other than it is. This state of affairs is inevitable within the world of conditioned things.
  
  

Karma

• Karma is a Buddhist concept that is familiar in the modern world but often misunderstood. While many people interpret karma as fate, it is actually an expression of the law of cause and effect. Also known as the Doctrine of Dependent Origination, the law of karma states that everything has a cause, and everything is the cause of something else. This simple law translates in the real world into a fantastically complex interweaving of billions of simultaneous and reflexive causes and effects that are constantly interacting. By acting with compassion and wisdom, an individual can become a cause of peace rather than suffering in the world.