Friends:
When Experiencing Impermanence
one comprehends the
futility of clinging!
The
Blessed Buddha once said:
What,
Ananda, is experiencing impermanence, inconstancy & transience?
When a Bhikkhu, having gone to a forest, to the foot of a tree, or to an
empty
place, reflects: all Form is Inconstant, all Feeling is Fleeting, all
Experience
is Impermanent, all Mental Construction is Transient, all Consciousness is
Momentary and in this way remains noting the impermanence, inconstancy
and transience of
these
5 Clusters of Clinging...
Then this, Ananda, is the experience of impermanence...,
The perception of inconstancy... &
The sensation of transience...
Source (edited
extract):
Numerical Discourses of the Buddha. Anguttara Nikāya AN
10:60, AN V 108ff.
Girimananda Sutta
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an10/an10.060.than.html
Buddha furthermore explained:
Bhikkhus, there
is no lasting materiality, no lasting form whatsoever...
there is no lasting feeling whatsoever...
there is no
lasting perception whatsoever...
there is no
lasting mental construction whatsoever...
there is no lasting conscious awareness of anything whatsoever...
there is permanent, everlasting, eternal, not subject to change,
not transient, not vanishing, that will last as long as eternity... !!!
SN 22.96/vol. iii, 144
All formations, all constructions are
impermanent, transient, vanishing...
MN 35/vol. i, 230
Whatever can arise and emerge, that also will
surely cease...
MN 56/vol. i, 380
Comments from the
classical commentaries:
Impermanence is not Evident unless
specifically looked for:
False Apparent Continuity covers up and camouflages Impermanence:
The
characteristic of impermanence does not become apparent because,
when rise and fall are not given attention, it is concealed by continuity...
However, when continuity is disrupted by observing rise & fall here & now,
the characteristic of impermanence becomes apparent in its true nature.
Vism. Ch. xxi/p. 640
Moments of mental states always change as Iron darts hit:
Observing the abrupt Change of all States discloses their discrete nature:
When continuity is disrupted means, when it is exposed by observation of
the perpetual alteration of states as they go on occurring in succession.
For it is not through the connectedness of states, that the characteristic of
impermanence becomes apparent to one who rightly observes rise and fall,
but rather the characteristic becomes properly evident through their discrete
disconnectedness, regarded as if each moment were iron darts, hitting in on
reality one by one separately, instead of as a continuous flow of slow
change.
VismA. 824
All states rise and fall.
This characteristic of change, ageing, &
evanescence
is the universal impermanence of all worldly. Nothing here escapes change!
It is a distortion of view, perception, and thinking to regard anything as
lasting!
Impermanence inherently implies suffering as all what is
liked
will evaporate!
Impermanence implies no-self as nothing remains identical as same
identity!
Whether internal or external: It is only passing states - material & mental -
...
Experiencing impermanence thus also means seeing suffering and no-self!
When realizing that all states passes on and evaporates instantly,
one realizes the impossible futility inherent in all forms of clinging.
It is like sand running out between the fingers. It can never be kept!
Nothing can ever be kept, owned, possessed, maintained, or retained!
So let it go. Release it! Relinquish it all. Do not fear. Nothing lasting is
lost!
It was never your's anyway. It will go away by itself anyway. It is pain
anyway!
It was never really the same anyway, & it will never ever return again
anyway...
More on impermanence, inconstancy, & transience (Anicca)
Anicca (Impermanence) According to Theravada (Bhikkhu Ņanamoli)
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/various/wheel186.html
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/library/DPPN/wtb/a/anicca.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/II/Transient_formations.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/II/Perceiving_Transience.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/III/Impermanence_Anicca.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/II/The_Internal_Transience.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/II/The_External_Transience.htm
The Experience
of Impermanence!