Dhammapada
Buddhist elders (Pali canon) · 300 BCE
Excerpt
“All compounded things decay; nothing that is conditioned remains. (paraphrase of Khandha Goyana 277-301)”
Why the atlas keeps it
Verses assembled from the older Buddhist canon, of which the Khandha Goyana section on arising and passing away is the part that matters here. Its analysis of experience as conditioned and therefore impermanent is the substrate for dependent origination and for the no-self analysis, and it is the oldest systematic account of how a mind fails to stay put. The excerpt below paraphrases the Khandha Goyana rather than quoting a translation.
Terms this text reaches for
Ranked by the codex search index against the summary above, not hand-picked.
Dependent origination
philosophyEverything arises in dependence on conditions, so nothing exists independently.
No-self
philosophyThe Buddhist analysis denying that a person has a fixed, independent essence.
Mind upload
philosophyCopying a mind into a software substrate, and everything that follows from copying.
Arms race dynamics
governanceThe pattern in which each party's precautions are read by the other as a threat.
Li
philosophyRitual and propriety: the shared practices through which a life becomes coherent.
Constitutional AI
technicalTraining a model to critique and revise its own outputs against a written set of principles.