Impermanence (2)

While the principle of impermanence (anicca) is central to all Buddhist teachings, its full realisation deepens through ongoing practice. At first, impermanence is understood intellectually — everything changes. But as mindfulness sharpens, one begins to directly experience the relentless arising and passing away of all phenomena at finer and finer levels.

Not only do external objects change — the body ages, possessions decay, relationships evolve — but internal processes too reveal their transient nature. Thoughts, emotions, perceptions, and even consciousness itself arise momentarily and dissolve without any lasting core. What appears as a stable “self” is exposed as a stream of conditioned, impermanent events.

This deeper insight into impermanence dismantles clinging at its root. Craving depends on the assumption of lasting satisfaction; aversion depends on the hope of permanent escape from unpleasantness. When it is seen that nothing endures, the basis for both craving and aversion weakens. Instead, a profound equanimity arises — a willingness to meet each moment fully, knowing its fleeting nature.

At its deepest, the contemplation of impermanence leads to the realisation of non-self (anattā) and the cessation of suffering. Liberation is not found by stabilising or perfecting experience, but by letting go entirely — resting in the ungraspable flow of dependent origination without resistance or identification.

In this way, impermanence becomes not a source of fear, but the doorway to freedom.

“All conditioned phenomena are like a dream, a mirage, a bubble, or a shadow, like dew or a flash of lightning — thus should one view them.”
— Diamond Sutra 32