the core of the Buddha's teaching

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.