The Concept of Anicca (Impermanence)

The Buddhist doctrine is fundamentally based on the truth of impermanence (anicca). Anicca is an undeniable, inescapable reality of life. Nothing exists beyond this law of impermanence. The Buddha declared that humans cannot control or alter certain truths. These are aging, sickness, and death after birth. No power can defy these principles. Yet, there is a path to liberation from these truths. This liberation is achieved through Nibbāna, and the Buddha revealed the way to attain it through practice. Hinduism also accepts the principle of life’s impermanence. However, its approach differs. Hinduism teaches that liberation from impermanence comes by uniting with the eternal Ātman (Self) residing within oneself. This eternal Self never dies, is permanent and unchanging. The Ātman is the ultimate truth within every being, the most fundamental and supreme reality of all life—believed to be Brahman. Those who fully realize the Ātman are said to attain the state of Brahman and become deathless. But the Buddha directly opposed this core Hindu belief. Thus, Buddhists, following the Buddha’s teachings, do not accept the existence of a fixed, absolute truth called “God” or “Soul” (Ātman). Instead, Buddhists hold that all things are in a state of constant flux. Nothing in the world is permanent. All phenomena undergo ceaseless change, and this process cannot be denied. The Buddha taught that all conditioned things (saṅkhāra) are subject to destruction. His disciples accept that life flows like a river, changing from moment to moment. According to the Buddha’s teaching, life can be likened to a great river. Mind and matter (nāma-rūpa) arise and vanish so rapidly that they create the illusion of a continuous stream. What we call “life” is merely a combination of ceaseless arising and passing away, moment after moment. Life arises due to causes and conditions: multiple causes combine to produce multiple effects, giving rise to the present aggregation of mind and matter that appears as “a life.” Ultimate reality (paramattha) is neither life nor mind-matter—it is pure arising and ceasing. Just as things shift from cause to effect, moment to moment, so too does one life transition to another. The water in a river yesterday is not the water seen today; the water seen now will not be seen later. Life is the same—constantly changing, one moment after another, in endless succession. What arises is unceasingly subject to destruction. Consider a person. Throughout life, we believe it is “the same person.” In truth, they change every moment. They arise and cease each instant—born and dying ceaselessly. The mind-matter of this moment will not exist the next. Life is but a flash of existence before dissolution. Today’s mind-matter is not yesterday’s; tomorrow’s will not be today’s. Only the present moment exists. So where is the mind-matter from birth now? Yet, delusion (vipallāsa)—wrong perception, wrong thought, wrong view—veils this truth. When we see someone today whom we saw yesterday, we think, “It’s him, the same person.” But yesterday’s mind-matter perished where it was observed; it cannot follow us to today. Arising and ceasing occur so rapidly that they create the illusion of continuity. This is the perspective of ultimate reality (paramattha-sacca). On the conventional level (sammuti-sacca), we must still use names and labels—person, being, man, woman. If conventional reality obscures the ultimate, causing us to mistake the former for the latter, we will contradict the Buddha’s teaching of Nibbāna. The Dharma-nature—that the entire world is nothing but arising and ceasing—is also validated by science. Within beings, cells divide continuously. Old cells die and new ones replace them, creating the appearance of forms like humans or dogs. Like waves in the ocean, they change every second. Similarly, within a person, countless physical and mental phenomena arise and cease. Physically and mentally, a person is never the same at any two moments. Scientifically, no being is composed of identical energy. Body and mind are in constant motion. All mind-matter changes; it moves through transformation. Impermanence (anicca) is the undeniable truth of life. Truth (sacca) exists only in the present. Present existence is the result of past causes. The notion of a “person” or “being” arises only due to ignorance (avijjā) veiling reality. Ultimately, there is no person or being—only a stream of changing phenomena. Though we label stages of human life—childhood, adulthood, old age—as “the same person,” in terms of arising and ceasing, there is no identity. When one grows old, the mind-matter of childhood is gone; when aged, that of adulthood is gone. A seed is not the plant; it only gives rise to the plant. A fruit is not the tree; it is produced by the tree. The concept of anicca is central to Buddhism. By mindfully observing it, one can penetrate this truth with insight and discover the path beyond the suffering of human life. Through vipassanā meditation—observing the arising and ceasing of mind-matter—one sees the dissolution of what is hated (impermanence). At that moment, by escaping the grip of anicca, one realizes Nibbāna. Seeing Nibbāna with direct knowledge is called “attaining Nibbāna.” Once realized, one has reached the goal. Dr. Ashin Parami See also: http://myakyunthar.blogspot.com/?m=1