What does 'all the phenomena related to the senses are "not real"' mean? Upasaka Angus asked on another place:


  What do you mean that all the phenomena related to the senses are "not real"?


So what does a statement '"all the phenomena related to the senses are "not real (anicca)"' dhammical mean?

What are phenomena related to the senses?

(Note that question in Dhamma is not dedicated for trade, exchange, stacks or entertainment but as a means to make merits toward release from this wheel)
I think that &quot;not real&quot; is not a good translation, and is not a translation that I'm used to seeing on Access To Insight or other careful translations.
It's a phrase I used to see written sometimes in some author's modern paraphrase of Buddhism, and before I discovered the translations of the suttas -- but it's a phrase I didn't understand at that time, and which might be (in my experience) a little harmful because it makes Buddhism sound like nonsense (e.g. because I don't understand it).
For that kind of reason I wish that people wouldn't use the phrase (&quot;not real&quot;). As well as being unclear, and maybe untrue, the phrase &quot;not real&quot; also seems to be a bit unkind -- if someone is grieving a loved one's death, for example, would you say &quot;the grief you feel isn't real&quot;? That kind of message (&quot;grief isn't real&quot;) is not the kind of message I get from the suttas (though the suttas do describe a way towards the end of suffering).
I think the conventional (non-Buddhist, English-language) understanding of &quot;not real&quot; is something like &quot;illusory&quot; or &quot;not existent&quot; -- also &quot;not tangible&quot; or &quot;not thing-like&quot; -- but that sort of meaning might be refuted by this Zen story:

Nothing Exists
Yamaoka Tesshu, as a young student of Zen, visited one master after another. He called upon Dokuon of Shokoku.
Desiring to show his attainment, he said: “The mind, Buddha, and sentient beings, after all, do not exist. The true nature of phenomena is emptiness. There is no realization, no delusion, no sage, no mediocrity. There is no giving and nothing to be received.”
Dokuon, who was smoking quietly, said nothing. Suddenly he whacked Yamaoka with his bamboo pipe. This made the youth quite angry.
“If nothing exists,” inquired Dokuon, “where did this anger come from?”

The word anicca is usually translated &quot;impermanent&quot;.
The &quot;phenomena related to the senses&quot; are usually described as &quot;dependently originated&quot;, &quot;not fit to be regarded as 'self'&quot;, &quot;changeable&quot;, maybe &quot;not satisfying&quot;, and by implication &quot;not reliable&quot; etc. (though they're also described as &quot;The All&quot; in one sutta).