Sutra on the Eight Realizations of the Great Beings

THE FIRST REALIZATION is the awareness that the world is impermanent. All political regimes are subject to fall; all things composed of the four elements are empty and contain the seeds of suffering. Human beings are composed of five skandhas, aggregates, and are without a separate self. They are always in the process of change - constantly being born and constantly dying. They are empty of self, without sovereignty. The mind is the source of all confusion, and the body is the forest of all impure actions. If we meditate on these facts, we can gradually be released from samsara, the round of birth and death.

from the booklet on the Eight Realizations translated and commented by Thich Nhat Hanh