Dhamma (Pāḷi) or Dharma (Sanskrit) in singular and generally denotes the Teaching of the Buddha, the truth or natural law he discovered, used for liberation, and taught.
Dhammā or dharmā in plural – according to context – usually point to phenomena, things, experiences, factors of existence, conditions, realities.
The conditioned phenomena (saṅkhata dhammā) have three characteristics:
- 1.
Impermanence (anicca): They are impermanent and transitory phenomena arising and immediately vanishing totally again.
- 2.
Suffering (dukkha): Through their transience, instability and liability to suffering, they all have the nature of dukkha, that is, they are unsatisfactory, deficient, or insufficient.
- 3.
Non-self (anatta): They are void of an “I” or any permanent entity which could be called I, ego, self, or soul. The third characteristic applies to Nibbāna, the unconditioned dhamma, too.
Dhammā are ultimate realities (paramattha dhammā), the qualities of which are always the same, never change,...
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Agganyani, V. (2013). Dhamma/Dharma. In: Runehov, A.L.C., Oviedo, L. (eds) Encyclopedia of Sciences and Religions. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-8265-8_201209
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