The Buddha regarded this world as the world of hardship, and taught the ways to cope with it. Then, what are the reasons which make it a world of hardship? The first reason, as given by the Buddha is that all things are selfless or egoless, which means that all things—men, animals and inanimate objects, both living and not living—do not have what we may call their original self or real being. Let us consider man. A man does not have a core or a soul which he can consider to be his true self. A man exists, but he cannot grasp his real being—he cannot discover his own core, because the existence of a man is nothing but an “existence depending on a series of causations.” Everything that exists is there because of causations; it will disappear when the effects of the causations cease.

The waves on the water’s surface certainly exist, but can it be said that a wave has its own self? Waves exist only while there is wind or current. Each wave has its own characteristics according to the combination of causations—the intensity of the winds and currents and their directions, etc. But when the effects of the causations cease, the waves are no more. Similarly, there cannot be a self which stands independent of causations. …

Selflessness (no substance) and impermanence (no duration) are the real state of our existence; Nirvana (negatively extinction; positively perfection) is our ideal, that is, perfect freedom, quiescence.