Impermanence

Buddhist insight into change teaches us many things. Ultimately, it leads to cessation of suffering. In the intermediate stage, it makes us feel happy to have the characteristics of Four Bramahvihara or four divine states of dwelling: metta (loving kindness), karuna (compassion), mudita (sympathetic joy) and upekkha (equanimity).

Venerable Sariputta is considered the first of the Buddha’s two chief male disciples, together with Moggallana. He heard of the Buddha’s name through a monk disciple of the Buddha. When he first saw the monk, he noticed the exceptional qualities and asked the monk to teach him some Dharma. The monk said: “I am new to monk-hood and know very little about Dharma. I am afraid I am not in the position to teach you any Dharma.” Venerable Sariputta said: “Please teach me whatever you know.” The monk said: “What I’ve learnt from my teacher is: everything arises due to conditions, and everything ceases when the conditions vanish.” Venerable Sariputta instantly felt some breakthrough in his spiritual cultivation. He felt so inspired and happy. He asked: “Who is your teacher? Where can I find him?” The monk told him about the Buddha. After that, Venerable Sariputta invited his best friend, Venerable Moggallana, to travel together to become disciples of the Buddha. From this historical account, we can see how powerful and inspiring the Buddhist insight into change is. Of course, not everybody can fully comprehend the idea although everybody can understand the words. One can only feel its power and inspiration when he truly gains the insight.

It is simply a reality that everything in this world changes all the time. Physical things change, while mental objects (or thoughts) change much faster by orders of magnitude. An ordinary person who doesn’t see reality as it is but wishes reality to be what he wants to see will experience a lot of suffering in life. The reason being he expected certain things to be permanent only to be disappointed again and again by the changes. Changes will not cause suffering if one has Right Views or sees reality as it is; i.e. one who accepts it as reality, nothing abnormal about it, and doesn’t despise the changes. For example, one loses a leg but he is content with having one more leg to move around; therefore, losing a leg doesn’t cause any suffering to him. He accepts it as something which must happen to him for some unknown reason. This is in contrast to another who has wrong views, feeling devastated and unable to spring back up into actions and move on. The same changes cause suffering to one but not another. That simply means the suffering is mind-made; one causes suffering to himself for having wrong views.

Suffering arises due to conditions, and suffering ceases when the conditions vanish. That means one can cease all sufferings by controlling his mind to vanish the undesirable conditions. Changes are normal occurrences; choosing to see changes as abnormal occurrences simply causes oneself to make suffering as a normal and frequent occurrence in his daily life. Every little change can cause suffering to him. Isn’t that unwise?

The condition which leads to suffering is the desire of oneself. When one desires to see something happen, he will feel disappointed when it doesn’t happen accordingly. One suffers when he desires for a certain kind of birth; i.e. he wants to live the life of someone else. Some people are sad that they weren’t born in a noble family, rich family, rich country, or with a beautiful face to become a movie star, etc. Some people wish they weren’t born into this world. Some people see being born means involuntarily cast into a world to experience all kinds of suffering. One suffers when he desires to stay young forever with no discomforts associated with ageing. Some people are sad that their faces start to have wrinkles, their bodies start to become weak and painful. They are unhappy with the changes, although they can choose not to feel that way. One suffers when he desires to be 100% healthy. Some people are sad when they are sick, although they can choose not to feel unhappy. One suffers when he desires to live forever, although he knows that no one is immortal. Some people are afraid to talk about death, or feel sad that they will die; even though they are unhappy with their lives, being poor, having a broken family, etc. They would do everything they could to stay alive; even though it incurs a lot of pain, costs a lot of money, involves organ transplant, etc. One suffers when he desires to associate only with someone he likes and feel sad having to associate with the disliked. He can choose not to dislike anybody, or stay away from the disliked, but he chooses to stay on due to certain considerations. One suffers when he is separated from the beloved ones. He wrongly assumes he deserved to be fettered to the beloved ones by unbroken chains. One suffers when he doesn’t get what he desires. Thus, it is very clear that all sufferings are due to desire. Do all desires lead to suffering? The Buddha never said that. Desire to walk the spiritual path is essential; cessation of suffering requires the desire to have no desire. The path leading to cessation of suffering is the Noble Eightfold Path: Right Views, Right Thoughts, Right Speeches, Right Actions, Right Livelihood, Right Efforts, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration. Can desire to have no desire cause suffering? Of course, it can. The Noble Eightfold Path is like a boat to ferry a person to cross the flood of suffering. One needs the boat before reaching the desired destination; but he doesn’t need it anymore when he has crossed the flood. There is no more need for desire to have no desire.

No desire for bad time doesn’t mean one will not get bad time. Similarly, no desire for a good time doesn’t mean one will not have a good time. There will be good times and bad times, regardless of desire or no desire. Everything arises due to conditions, and everything ceases when the conditions vanish. Good times are impermanent, but one need not feel unhappy for the passing away of good times. Bad times are also impermanent; i.e. one should feel happy (or at least not unhappy) that good times will come after the cessation of bad times.

The body and mind are impermanent. Clinging to impermanent things is like being fettered by chains to the unworthy impermanent things. If one truly treasures freedom, he should break the chains which are holding him back. It is unwise to see the body as “self”, or assuming the “self” is inside the body, or considering the body as belonging to the “self”. This body and mind are as unworthy as anything else which is made of Earth, Water, Fire and Wind. It is pure ego to see the body as superior or inferior to any other thing. It is a delusion to think that one has a “self”. The sense organs, feelings, perceptions, volition, and consciousness (known as the Five Aggregates of Clinging) cause the delusion of being alive. You and I are possibly robots which have been designed and programmed to have that kind of delusion. Anyway, the idea of non-self is more beneficial than the unproven view of having a self. Everything arises due to conditions, and everything ceases when the conditions vanish. Having sense organs, feelings, perceptions, volition, and consciousness are not proof of having a self. Conversely, if we choose to think that all these arise due to conditions, there is nothing abnormal about having diversity of things in this world of which humans are just one of the species, neither superior nor inferior, the absence of ego can lead to cessation of suffering. We will have no greed, hatred and delusion. We will have no fear, anger, anxiety, depression, sorrow, grief, lamentations and despair. It is not important to debate who is right or wrong. One is wise to adopt an idea which will bring happiness and cease all sufferings.

The contemplation of non-self makes one see that he is incapable of gaining or losing anything and everything. Nothingness has no place for dirt to attach to. Birth, ageing, sickness, death, association with the disliked, separation with the beloved ones, and not getting what one wants happens to someone but not oneself when one has no self. One with no self is selfless. He doesn’t consider “himself” to ever be born and, therefore, he can never die. He is unborn and deathless. He has annihilated birth and death, here and now. This is Nibbana, or escape from the cycle of birth and death (Samsara).

What about the Four Bramahvihara or four divine states of dwelling: metta (loving kindness), karuna (compassion), mudita (sympathetic joy) and upekkha (equanimity)? Everything arises due to conditions, and everything ceases when the conditions vanish. When one has this Right View, seeing reality as it really is instead of wishing reality to be what he wants to see, he sees that all beings are helpless; i.e. unable to control themselves, their behaviors, their fates, and has no freewill to walk or rest. Some people only think that they think but they don’t really think; it’s just a delusion. Some people feel they have self-control; it’s another delusion. It’s true that we have a certain level of freewill, but no one is really free. Can you control yourself to stay awake for 24 hours? With the Right View, one will have metta (loving kindness) to forgive everyone and never feel angry with anyone. One will also have karuna (compassion) to help others without seeking “return-on-investment” or reciprocation. One who sees no self is incapable of gaining or losing anything. He will also have mudita (sympathetic joy) since he has no suffering. He will have upekkha (equanimity) since he always focuses inwards and concentrates on inner peace. He is unmoved by the Eight Winds: gain and loss, praise and blame, fame and disrepute, pleasure and pain.