Anicca: The Buddhist Concept of Impermanence
As promised, in this post, I’m going to begin an explanation of five key Buddhist philosophies. So grab your prayer wheels and meditation cushions…Here we go!
Dukkha, or Suffering/Dissatisfaction
Aside from reincarnation, probably the most well-known Buddhist philosophy is that dissatisfaction or suffering is inherent to the human condition.
For example, there is always something we want: We want our child to become a doctor–or at least to get a job. We want new shoes. We want that dent in our car repaired. We want to be liked. We want to go to the blockbuster on Friday night; to read the newspaper in peace, damn it; and to eat the donut we hid in the back of the refrigerator drawer.
This constant eruption of desires is part of our human make-up, but it leaves us never truly satisfied. Instead, we’re always lurching toward our next desire.
Moreover, because the nature of existence is transitory, often we can’t even hold onto our desires once we attain them. The sensation of sweet chocolate melting in our mouth, the intensity of a new romance…alas, alas, all too soon they’re mere memories.
Of course, we all realize that despite our best evasive maneuvers, we won’t live forever. But the point is not only that life is transient, but so are events, so are relationships, and so are our interests. They shift, they morph, they flow in, they ebb out.
Although we exert some control over events, our existence is subject to a constantly changing set of factors. We will age, regardless of our feelings about it; children will grow up and not become doctors, and the guy at the next desk over will get the promotion.
The result? We’re dissatisfied. We suffer. Dukkha. Dukkha. Dukkha.
But, in the words of Buddhist Toni Bernhard, “These are not in themselves what the Buddha meant by dukkha. It’s the aversion to the unpleasantness that is (dukkha), and the desire to cling to things …that causes dukkha. And so, the origin of (dukkha) is… craving or longing for the circumstances of our lives to be different.”
Which leads us (kind of) to the second key Buddhist philosophy of this post–that of impermanence:
Impermanence
The lesson that ‘everything is impermanent’ becomes a little too apparent as we age and witness the ever-shifting landscape around us. People we knew for years vanish into cemeteries; babies are born, turn into kids, then droop into adults; red blood cells die after four months, white blood cells after a year, and strange new cells take their place. Even our arteries, skin, liver, lungs, digestive tract, and certain parts of the brain don’t stay around for long…they constantly die and are replaced.
Life is a series of changes. Our thoughts form, then before we’ve barely made their acquaintance, they hop on the next train out of town. Our friends shift with our abodes. The food on our plate, gone in 15 minutes. Our aspiration to get this or that job, car, or outfit dissipates as soon as we attain it. The green leaves turn golden, then brown; our true love moves in with another; one moment we’re on top of the world, the next we’re licking our wounds—and vice versa.
My mother decorated her apartment with photos of my kids back when they still really were kids. Not only do they no longer look the same, they no longer even think the same. In fact, they’re no longer those individuals in the gilded frames.
Taoists recognize this and advocate going with the flow. Things change, we change, and if we accept impermanence as the state of existence we save ourselves a good deal of pain. Alternately, we can cling to things and wallow in sorrow when they’re gone.
In closing, I invite you to send in comments, if you have any. Next week, I expect to finish this series on Buddhism, but as Robert Burns wrote, ““The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft a-gley.” (So, maybe not.)