SIGNIFICANCE

         The word 'Anicca' is a household word in any Buddhist country. It means Impermanence. Another word often jointly used by the Lord Buddha is 'Viparinamadhammo' meaning the nature of change. Impermanence or change is a fundamental concept in Buddhism. Without a realisation of it, there can never be any true insight through which we can see things as they really are.

          The Buddha teaches that we can only understand Dukkha and Anatta through an understanding of Anicca. The Buddha however has chosen Dukkha as the central point of realisation of the truth. This choice is a very skilful method of explaining the realities of life.

         It is the knowledge of Anicca, impermanence, that heals Dukkha, suffering. By understanding Anicca, we come to understand that there is no permanent entity underlying our life (Anatta).

         A lack of this right understanding will certainly result in finding oneself in :he wild jungle of perverted perception, polluted thought and tainted view Sanna, Citta and Ditthivipallasa). A failure to comprehend this truth, Anicca, will also leave one unprotected from a false notion of self or soul which dangerously underlies any wrong view.

          Unnecessary disappointment, despair, and frustration in our daily life often item from ignorance of the law of nature, which is change or impermanence. It is therefore indeed very important for each and every of us to understand the nature of change or impermanence in order to face problems courageously in our daily lives; in order to learn how to compromise with one another; in order to reduce unnecessary tensions in our relationships; in order to be in harmony with nature and live a happy life; and in order to make ourselves more and more wise as time goes by.

CHARACTERISTIC OF THE WORLD

          Remember that a characteristic is something necessarily connected with something else that exists in reality. It can tell us about something connected with it. Take fire and heat, for instance. Heat is the characteristic of fire, not water, because naturally the heat of fire is always connected with fire. On the other hand, the heat of water depends on external factors like electric stoves, the heat of the sun and so on. So the heat is natural to fire, not water. It is in this sense the Lord Buddha employs the term 'Characteristic' (Lakkhana) to explain the nature of our existence.

          Impermanence or change is something common and natural to all of us — rich and poor, educated and uneducated, monk and lay person, ruler and ruled, democratic and authoritarian, employer and employee, religious minded and otherwise — in fact, the whole of existence including the inanimate. That is why change is a characteristic of life. It explains how life exists and operates.

HOW THE BUDDHA TAUGHT

          The Buddha did not create change or impermanence. It was there in his time, it is there now, and it will always be there. But the Buddha was the one who made it clear to us, He taught us to be able to live in harmony with nature: nature that exists in persons, in things around us; the nature that sometimes turns out in its own way just against what we would want it to be. Change is just a fact and verified by direct immediate observation. He uses the word 'Dhamma' to describe change. Dhamma here means nature. He reveals his observation in a typically simple way: "Component things come and go, arise and perish" (Uppajjhitva Nirujjhanti).

          The Master uses the analysis and synthesis method for unenlightened beings like us. He analysed human beings or so-called personality as dividing into five groups; he made us observe one by one if such personality stands still or constantly changes all the time. By comprehensive analysis, we can see that it flows endlessly, changes incessantly all the time. This is how the first lesson was taught to a group of five intellectuals later known as Pancavaggiya at Saranath, Baranasi in India.

          Often the Buddha uses other similar forms of analysis but different in number. For example, he reduces the world into two components: mental and physical phenomena (Namarupa), or into six parts: eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mind together with their respective objects or sometimes into eighteen elements (Dhatu). By making us examine things near and dear to us the Buddha always tried to simplify his teachings so that we could abandon our habit of perceiving and believing things superstitiously.

         Our habit is that we tend to perceive as if things are permanent. Man has created God and heavens, which are said to be everlasting and will be a reward for those who follow the so-called God. We can become very depressed to discover the true nature of life — impermanence, change. Therefore, we created God in our imagination to console ourselves.

          It is so easy for us to see that component things change. Look at our own photos in driving licenses and passports over the years. Physically we do not remain the same but have been changing. Then how about mental states? Just close your eyes and try to look at how your mind works. Fix your mind on a certain object, nostril or on any object of your choice. You will see how fast it changes, much faster than how our physical state changes. We feel happy and now we feel sad. We see things in the past through our thoughts. While sitting and listening to a Dhamma talk our mind goes often to some where else, may be to a work place, a friend's house, a supermarket or even overseas. Different objects and different feelings appear and disappear continuously.

          Nevertheless, until we become weak and decay, we just do not want to accept that our body changes all the time because we fear we might become less and less beautiful. Instead of accepting the law of nature as it is, we tend to live in a wild jungle of illusion perceiving that things do not change but are almost permanent.

POSSIBLE MISCONCEPTIONS OF CHANGE

         Anicca is one of the Buddhist teachings that have been there for over two millennia. Often we accept it without really reflecting what it means. People often say, "Oh this is Anicca, impermanent" when something goes wrong. It is a good reflection. But sometimes it is rather a consolation for an unfortunate event rather than seeing things as they really are.

          Why? Because most of people do reflect on Anicca, the impermanence only on painful occasions. They never think of it on happy occasions, they just for get impermanence during their youthful hay-days, they tend to apply this characteristic only to unhappy moments, to failures, disappointment, and suffering. You lost something, you think of Anicca. So far so good.

          However, this is still not a comprehensive understanding of impermanence. Impermanence applies to happy conditions as well. If it were not for 'Impermanence' or 'Change' we would not be able to make a foolish person wise, we would not struggle to liberate ourselves from poverty, ignorance and suffering. We can liberate ourselves from those terrible conditions because we can make things change. We can achieve our goals simply because the nature of change operates everywhere and at any time.

          The oppressed have been liberated. Slaves have won back their dignity and freedom in the United States. England has been able to get out of the starvation faced during the 16th century. A healthy man can fall ill while at the same time a sick person can recover. These are but a few examples of Change (Anicca) taking place.

          Change may bring us encouragement or discouragement. It may create happiness or unhappiness; it may give us joy or anxiety. In any case, change is change. It is a reality. It is for human beings as individuals as well as to society and nations to make best use of their wisdom, reasoning power, and intelligence to achieve change for the better and to avoid the worse.

          Remember the original observation of the Lord Buddha: "Component things have the nature of both arising and falling away". He used the plural form to include both natures: the nature of becoming and the nature of ceasing, positive nature as well as negative one. If we focus only on the negative or suffering side of this law of nature, we may find ourselves disappointed and dwelling on the pessimistic side of life alone.

          If we forget both sides, altogether we will certainly not be prepared for the worse but hope only for the best. By showing both sides of the law of impermanence, by making us aware of both possibilities of the facts of life, the Lord Buddha has led us to a realistic world. As Venerable Aggamahapandita Dr. Walpola Rahula says in his What the Buddha Taught: the Buddha is neither pessimistic nor optimistic but realistic, taking account of a situation from all its different angles.

CHANGE IN MODERN PHILOSOPHY

          Scientists say religion often opposes change. In the 18th century, according to observations by British sociologists like Stephen Moore, the Catholic Church in Europe was an obstacle to the development of science. They were arguing that change would destroy the social order that was created by God.

          But Bertrand Russell in his Outline of Philosophy said that "The notion of substance, in the sense of permanent entity with changing states is no longer applicable to the world: A wave in the sea persists for longer or shorter time; the waves that I see dashing themselves to pieces on the Cornish coast may have come all the way from Brazil, but it does not mean that a 'Thing' has travelled across the Atlantic; it means only that a certain process of change has travelled".

          The Buddha said life is changing all the time. Life is nothing but a flux of cause and effect that is constantly changing. He used the word 'Nadisotoviya' meaning a flowing stream. It flows continuously that we find it hard to perceive a break.

          Bertrand Russell also agreed with the observation of the Buddha when he uses the same name for the same finding of his research. He said everything in the world is composed of 'Events'. Events are not impenetrable, as matter is supposed to be; on the contrary, every event in space-time is overlapped by another event.

          The Buddha said component things are impermanent. They appear and disappear, making way for another to succeed. Science has discovered that in a day billions of new cells are replacing the old ones continuously. The skin also replaces it itself.

          Actually Heracleitus (6th BC), a Greek Philosopher, was the first western writer to speak about the fluid nature of things. He taught the Panta Rhei doctrine, the flux theory. He said, "There is no static being, no unchanging sub stratum, ... Change, movement is the Lord of the Universe". He saw change as a connecting system between all things — mush similar to what the Buddha said, "All component things change".

          Heracleitus compared life to a river when he said, "Upon those who step on the same rivers different and ever-different waters flow down". Plato later took this doctrine to mean that all things are in constant flux, regardless how they appear to the senses.

         In Buddhism, to understand this impermanent characteristic of the world is so important. It is an essential tenet of Buddhist wisdom.

          "Yam kinci samudayadhammam sabbam tam nirodhadhammam" meaning "Whatever of the nature of arising has the nature of ceasing" is a common utterance by Buddhist saints. In it, we can find the observation of this true nature of the world.

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