Aniccä vatha sankhärä
Uppäda vaya dhamminö
Uuppajjitvä nirujjhanti
Te san vüpa samö sukhö
- All things are impermanent
- They arise and pass away
- Having arisen they come to an end
- Their coming to peace is bliss
These few sentences alone can have and, according to the suttas of the
Pali canon, have had transformative impact on those ready to penetrate
to the deepest truths. Just by hearing that utterance from
the mouth of the Buddha, many spiritual seekers attained liberation.
What is so powerful about it and how can one directly experience this
in meditation and daily life?
On a conceptual level we all know this, right? Sure, nothing is everlasting. So what? Get me the next kick.
If truly understood, this fact of impermanence of all things that
enter our field of experience, one sees that one will not find what one
wants in anything at all. Not in the most delicious food,
in an exhilaratingly beautiful partner in bed, in a really
captivating movie, not even in the deepest meditation. So one can start
to ask oneself, each time a deep longing for any kind of
experience: do I really need this? Knowing that whatever it is, it
won't bring me lasting happiness and fulfillment. In meditation it is
tremendously revealing to stay alert to the arising and
passing away of any sense contact. Hearing a sound, seeing an
object, smelling an aroma, tasting a flavor, sensing a touch or thinking
a thought or memory; it's all coming and going, sooner or
later every experience dissolves into thin air. So there is an
opening to a choice. Do I react to it or not? Do I need to do something
about it, or not. Cultivating this attitude over time leads
to greater ease and tranquility even amidst the greater challenges
of human existence.
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