# Arahat and dukkha

**URL:** <https://classicaltheravada.org/t/arahat-and-dukkha/1181>\
**Category:** General Theravada topics\
**Created:** [March 24, 2024, 7:41pm UTC](https://classicaltheravada.org/t/arahat-and-dukkha/1181 "2024-03-24T19:41:25Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 39

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**Author:** ![RobertK](https://classicaltheravada.org/user_avatar/classicaltheravada.org/robertk/32/1498_2.png) [@RobertK](https://classicaltheravada.org/u/RobertK)\
**Post date:** [March 29, 2024, 3:48am UTC](https://classicaltheravada.org/t/arahat-and-dukkha/1181/39 "2024-03-29T03:48:03Z")

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> [@zerotime](#):
>
> . There is no possibility of dukkha without the clinging to an existing -self to sustain dukkha. We can name that TV image “dukkha” but this is just the sustaining of a concept, **this is not the description of a reality with dukkha.**

The three marks (characteristics), tilakkhana only apply to actual dhammas, realities. Concepts like TV or self are not included.

> [@zerotime](#):
>
> Dukkha is not a dhamma

Right, the three marks, anicca, dukkha and anatta are characteristics of dhammas, the nature of dhammas, not dhammas themselves:

> Vism XXI note 4.“These modes, [that is, the three characteristics,] are not included in the aggregates because they are states without individual essence (asabháva-dhammá); and they are not separate from the aggregates because they are unapprehendable without the aggregates. But they should be understood as appropriate conceptual differences (paññatti-visesá) that are reason for differentiation in the explaining of dangers in the five aggregates, and which are allowable by common usage in respect of the five aggregates” (Vism-mhþ 825).

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