Evrything is changable

[RedLantern]

What exists is changable and what is not changable does not exist.
In life we notice rise and fall,success and failure,loss and gain.We experience honour and contempt, praise and blame,and we feel how our hearts respond to all that happiness and sorrow,delight and despair,disappointment and satisfaction,fear and hope.These mighty waves of emotion carry us up,fling us down and no sooner we find some rest,then we are carried by the power of a new wave again.
How can we expect a footing on the crest of the waves?
Where shall we erect the building of our life in the midst of this ever restless ocean of existence?
Change is the very constituent of reality.The Buddha taught that universes or world cycle arises and pass away in endless succession,just as the lives of individuals do.Thus all Gods and human beings and animals and material forms-everything in the universe is subject to the law of impermanency.

[Tenzin K]

Early Buddhism dealt with the problem of impermanence in a very rationale manner. This concept is known as anicca in Buddhism, according to which, impermanence is an undeniable and inescapable fact of human existence from which nothing that belongs to this earth is ever free.

Buddhism declares that there are five processes on which no human being has control and which none can ever change. These five processes are namely, the process of growing old, of not falling sick, of dying, of decay of things that are perishable and of the passing away of that which is liable to pass. Buddhism however suggests that escape from these is possible and it's through Nirvana.

Hinduism also believes in the impermanent nature of life. But it deals with this problem differently. According to Hinduism, impermanence can be overcome by locating and uniting with the center of permanence that exists within oneself. This center is the Soul or the self that is immortal, permanent and ever stable.

According to Hinduism, Atman is the fundamental truth that exists in every being, while at the microcosmic level it is Brahman who is the fundamental and supreme truth of all existence. He who realizes Atman verily becomes Brahman and attains immortality.

The Buddha differed radically with this most fundamental concept of Hinduism and in line with his preaching the early Buddhists did not believe in the existence of a permanent and fixed reality which could be referred to as either God or soul. According to them what was apparent and verifiable about our existence was the continuous change it undergoes.

Thus early Buddhism declares that in this world there is nothing that is fixed and permanent. Every thing is subject to change and alteration. "Decay is inherent in all component things," declared the Buddha and his followers accepted that existence was a flux, and a continuous becoming.

According to the teachings of the Buddha, life is comparable to a river. It is a progressive moment, a successive series of different moments, joining  together to give the impression of one continuous flow. It moves from cause to cause, effect to effect, one point to another, one state of existence to another, giving an outward impression that it is one continuous and unified movement, where as in reality it is not. The river of yesterday is not the same as the river of today. The river of this moment is not going to be the same as the river of the next moment. So does life. It changes continuously, becomes something or the other from moment to moment.

Take for example the life of an individual. It is a fallacy to believe that a person would remain the same person during his entire life time. He changes every moment. He actually lives and dies but for a moment, or lives and dies moment by moment, as each moment leads to the next. A person is what he is in the context of the time in which he exists. It is an illusion to believe that the person you have seen just now is the same as the person you are just now seeing or the person whom you are seeing now will be the same as the person you will see after a few moments.

Even from a scientific point of view this is true. We know cell divisions take place in each living being continuously. Old cells in our bodies die and yield place continuously to the new ones that are forming. Like the waves in a sea, every moment, many thoughts arise and die in each individual . Psychologically and physically he is never the same all the time. Technically speaking, no individual is ever composed of the same amount of energy. Mental stuff and cellular material all the time. He is subject to change and the change is a continuous movement.

Impermanence and change are thus the undeniable truths of our existence. What is real is the existing moment, the present that is a product of the past, or a result of the previous causes and actions. Because of ignorance, an ordinary mind conceives them all to be part of one continuous reality. But in truth they are not.

The various stages in the life of a man, the childhood, the adulthood, the old age are not the same at any given time. The child is not the same when he grows up and becomes a young man, nor when the latter turns into an old man. The seed is not the tree, though it produces the tree, and the fruit is also not the tree, though it is produced by the tree.

The concept of impermanence and continuous becoming is central to early Buddhist teachings. It is by becoming aware of it, by observing it and by understanding it, one can find a suitable remedy for the sorrow of human life and achieve liberation from the process of anicca or impermanence.

[buddhalovely]

The Buddha described the world as an unending flux of becoming. All is changeable, continuous transformation, ceaseless mutation, and a moving stream. Everything exists from moment to moment. Everything is a recurring rotation of coming into being and then passing out of existence. Everything is moving from birth to death. The matter or material forms in which life does or does not express itself, are also a continuous movement or change towards decay. This teaching of the impermanent nature of everything is one of the main pivots of Buddhism. Nothing on earth partakes of the character of absolute reality. That there will be no death of what is born is impossible. Whatever is subject to origination is subject also to destruction. Change is the very constituent of reality.

[ratanasutra]

thank for the posts..
Once we understand that everything is changeable then what is going to happen next..? What we learn from that and what we going to do with our life, i think this is very importance so we do not just learn buddhist as lecture and that all.

Below here is the teaching from Lama Zopa about what we going to do after the realize of the impermanence..

Reflecting on impermanence and death in itself is not really a big deal, but thinking about it because of what follows after the death is important. If there is negative karma, then there are the lower realms of unimaginable sufferings, and this is something that can be stopped immediately.
We cannot be liberated from samsara within this hour, today, this week or even this year, but we can purify negative karma now, this hour today, and therefore stop being reborn in the lower realms if we die now, this hour, today. This is possible.

By remembering impermanence and death, karma and the lower realms of suffering, the mind is persuaded to use the solution of Dharma practice. Immediately the mind prepares for death. Immediately it purifies the heavy negative karmas that cause one to remain in the lower realms, where there are unimaginable sufferings and no possibility to practice Dharma.

Whenever there are problmes in our lives it is always good to remember the lower realms of suffering. We can't stand the problems we have now, but the lower realms of suffering are a zillion, zillion, zillion times greater, like the sky. If we put together all the energy of fire, no matter how hot, it is cool compared to one tiny fire spark of hell. All the energy of this human world's fire put together is cool compared to one tiny fire spark of the hell realm. Like this, it's always good to make a comparison.

Beings possessing a human body who haven't met Dharma, no matter how much wealth they have, no matter how may friends they have, no matter how much they appear to be enjoying their lives, in reality are only living with hallucination; they are living with wrong concepts, so many piles of wrong concepts. They are not aware of what is happening to them, they are not aware of their own life. They are not aware of the powers of their hallucination, the piles of wrong concepts that compel them to create the causess of samsara and the causes of the lower realms. They don't have the opportunity to plant the seed to be free from samsara, to cut the root of samsaric ignorance, because there is no understanding of emptiness, no opportunity to meditate on emptiness.

If a person has a good heart, a sincere mind, and gives some help to others without expecting any results, then maybe they create some pure Dharma – and that's very rare; otherwise not. Usually people live the life only with a worldly mind, particularly attachment, clinging to this life. They use the whole human life, the precious human body and all their education just to create additional causes to go to the lower realms.

This is what is happening in every day life. For the entire life people act like a moth attracted to the flame, completely hallucinated, completely deceived, not knowing the flame will burn, that it is completely other than what it appears. Even though they get burned, while they still have the power to fly they will continue to go towards the flame.

It is exactly the same with a fish and a baited hook. The fish does not know that there is a hook that cheats, leading to death and unbelievable suffering. Having no idea of the danger, it is constatnly being drawn with strong desire toward the hook baited with a piece of meat. The result that the fish experiences is completely other than what it expected. Once caught, there is no way to get away alive.

Following the dissatisfied mind, desire, the worldly mind, brings exactly the same result. Once sunk in the quagmire of the activities of this life, it is difficult to escape the hundreds of different problems, emotional pains of the mind and of the body that come from this one root, the dissatisfied mind, desire, attachment, clinging to this life. All we are doing is making samsara longer by creating karma; we are making a donation, a contribution to samsaric suffering, making it longer and longer. And then, of course, there are the sufferings of the lower realms, which are difficult to get out of.

It's the same with the way in which an elephant can be caught. A female elephant is used as a lure, the male elephant becomes crazy with disire and as a result, becomes trapped inside a cage. What was expected in the beginning was happiness, but what was received in the end was something else, something completely frightening.

All these examples show us the way in which samsara and the samsaric perfections cheat us, that they are not to be trusted. Therefore always remembering impermanence and death becomes so essential. Reflecting on impermanence and death makes life highly meaningful, and so quickly and so powerfully destroys the delusions and seed imprint. It is very easy to meditate on and one can cease the delusions. It leads one to begin to practice Dharma, and to continue and complete the practice.

[sonamdhargey]

Everything is changeable becuase nothing stays the same. he nature of existence is impermanence.

Something to share about impermanance:

If we contemplate even a minute sector of the vast range of life, we are faced with such a tremendous variety of life's manifestations that it defeats description. And yet three basic statements can be made that are valid for all animate existence, from the microbe up to the creative mind of a human genius. These features common to all life were first found and formulated over 2500 years ago by the Buddha, who was rightly called "Knower of the Worlds" (loka-vidu). They are the Three Characteristics (ti-lakkha.na) of all that is conditioned, i.e., dependently arisen. In English renderings, they are also sometimes called Signs, Signata, or Marks.

These three basic facts of all existence are:

Impermanence or Change (anicca)
Suffering or Unsatisfactoriness (dukkha)
Not-self or Insubstantiality (anattaa).
The first and the third apply to inanimate existence as well, while the second (suffering) is, of course, only an experience of the animate. The inanimate, however, can be, and very often is, a cause of suffering for living beings: for instance, a falling stone may cause injury or loss of property may cause mental pain. In that sense, the three are common to all that is conditioned, even to what is below or beyond the normal range of human perception.

Existence can be understood only if these three basic facts are comprehended, and this not only logically, but in confrontation with one's own experience. Insight-wisdom (vipassanaa-pa~n~naa) which is the ultimate liberating factor in Buddhism, consists just of this experience of the three characteristics applied to one's own bodily and mental processes, and deepened and matured in meditation.

To "see things as they really are" means seeing them consistently in the light of the three characteristics. Ignorance of these three, or self-deception about them, is by itself a potent cause for suffering — by knitting, as it were, the net of false hopes, of unrealistic and harmful desires, of false ideologies, false values and aims of life, in which man is caught. Ignoring or distorting these three basic facts can only lead to frustration, disappointment, and despair.

Hence, from a positive as well as a negative angle, this teaching on the Three Basic Facts of Existence is of such vital importance that it was thought desirable to add here more material to those brief expositions that had already appeared in this series.

Beginning with the present volume on Impermanence, each of the Three Characteristics will receive separate treatment by different authors and from different angles, with a great variety of approach.

Each of these three publications will be concluded by an essay of the late Venerable Ñanamoli Thera, in which all important canonical source material on the respective Characteristic is collected, systematized, and discussed. These tersely written articles merit close study and will be found very helpful in the analytical as well as meditative approach to the subject. Regrettably, the premature death of the venerable author prevented him from writing a fourth article planned by him, which was to deal with the interrelation of the Three Characteristics.

Source:http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/various/wheel186.html

[vajratruth]

Where shall we erect the building of our life in the midst of this ever restless ocean of existence?

Wonderful post RedLantern, and that one line in your post caught my eye. It represents the subtle and yet fundamental instinct of every human being that drives us and become correctly or incorrectly, the purpose of our lives.

Instead of accepting change and understanding that everything is in a continuous state of flux, we exhaust ourselves by trying to create our own permanence which we label as "security". Virtually everything we do in life, is so that we can obtain the tools to secure ourselves against change. And in so doing, not only do we bring grief to ourselves, we also miss the beauty of how changeable life is. Such is the affliction that dominates our lives and impedes our practice.

The source of this affliction is our failure to understand that nothing exists on its own and everything, including our very life and form originate in dependance on certain causes and conditions which in turn depend on other elements that cause their conditions to arise. Everything changes.

But that ought to be good news for us stuck in Samsara.



 

[biggyboy]

Change is the very constituent of reality.The Buddha taught that universes or world cycle arises and pass away in endless succession,just as the lives of individuals do.Thus all Gods and human beings and animals and material forms-everything in the universe is subject to the law of impermanency.

Life is like a river flowing through all the odds and evens along the way which is ever changing.  There’ll be times it flows slowly, smoothly or gently and sometimes swiftly depending on the ever changing of situation and conditions arise.  Just as things went on smoothly, there’ll be times boulders and rocks appear in between unexpectedly.  Isn’t this how our life is? No permanent situations and conditions.  Likewise, any living being, plants, solar system, eco system, matter etc., in fact everything is subject to changes without any indications.

If we ever destroy anything around us, we destroy ourselves. 
If we cheat others, we are cheating ourselves too. 

Nothing ever happens to us unless we deserve it. We receive exactly what we earn, whether it is good or bad. We are the way we are now due to the things we have done in the past. Our thoughts and actions determine the kind of life we can have. If we do good things, in the future good things will happen to us. If we do bad things, in the future bad things will happen to us. Every moment we create new karma by what we say, do, and think. Hence, everything is changeable still lies true even with the law of cause and effect ie. Karma.

[Amitabha]

What exists is changable and what is not changable does not exist.
In life we notice rise and fall,success and failure,loss and gain.We experience honour and contempt, praise and blame,and we feel how our hearts respond to all that happiness and sorrow,delight and despair,disappointment and satisfaction,fear and hope.These mighty waves of emotion carry us up,fling us down and no sooner we find some rest,then we are carried by the power of a new wave again.
How can we expect a footing on the crest of the waves?
Where shall we erect the building of our life in the midst of this ever restless ocean of existence?
Change is the very constituent of reality.The Buddha taught that universes or world cycle arises and pass away in endless succession,just as the lives of individuals do.Thus all Gods and human beings and animals and material forms-everything in the universe is subject to the law of impermanency.

Love never change. Buddha said that kindness, generosity, charitable begets kindness, success met failure etc because of good karmic of the past met with substraction and division and did not replenish back adequately with plus and multiplication.  Bad emotions arise following from the external changes would create climate and nature impurity and very devastative as experience from Tsunami, flooding etc. May all be well and safe!

[pgdharma]

Whatever IS will be WAS.

— Bhikkhu Ñanamoli

Change is a central feature of life. It can be exhilarating, frightening, exhausting, or relieving. It can spark sadness or happiness, resistance or grasping.

The Buddha’s last words were: “All conditioned things are impermanent. Strive on with diligence.” The Buddha said that suffering is not inherent in the world of impermanence; suffering arises when we cling. When clinging disappears, impermanence no longer gives rise to suffering. The solution to suffering is to end clinging and not to try to escape from the transient world.

The seemingly fixed and solid world we see around us actually is in a state of flux. Our senses may not be able to detect moment-to-moment change, but everything is always changing. When we fully appreciate this, we can fully appreciate our experiences without clinging to them. We can also learn to let go of old fears, disappointments, and regrets. Nothing is real but this moment.

[Jessie Fong]

Everything is changeable is because nothing is permanent.  Impermanence as in things do not have fixed nature/essence/self.

"Isn't change what's Buddhism all about?" 

Life is just like a yo-yo, it has its ups and downs, nothing is fixed.
What we know for sure is at the end of the road, death is waiting for us; but we do not know when, where and how it will happen.

[fruven]

Well it seems habits and behaviors are hard to change, for most people.

Jobs have been lost, hearts have been broken, accidents have happened, lives have been lost, all impermanence, but still people's habits and behaviors still remain the same. Many sufferings have we experienced since the day you and I are born but our habits and behaviors remain the same.

Does it say something about the mind is pretty persistent and stubborn? The persistence and stubbornness will create the cause of forever staying in samsara? Because we think samsara is permanent?

[Tammy]

I would like to share the following simple, basic yet profound explanation of 'change' :

The Buddha differed radically with this most fundamental concept of Hinduism and in line with his preaching the early Buddhists did not believe in the existence of a permanent and fixed reality which could be referred to as either God or soul. According to them what was apparent and verifiable about our existence was the continuous change it undergoes.

Thus early Buddhism declares that in this world there is nothing that is fixed and permanent. Every thing is subject to change and alteration. "Decay is inherent in all component things," declared the Buddha and his followers accepted that existence was a flux, and a continuous becoming.

According to the teachings of the Buddha, life is comparable to a river. It is a progressive moment, a successive series of different moments, joining  together to give the impression of one continuous flow. It moves from cause to cause, effect to effect, one point to another, one state of existence to another, giving an outward impression that it is one continuous and unified movement, where as in reality it is not. The river of yesterday is not the same as the river of today. The river of this moment is not going to be the same as the river of the next moment. So does life. It changes continuously, becomes something or the other from moment to moment.

Take for example the life of an individual. It is a fallacy to believe that a person would remain the same person during his entire life time. He changes every moment. He actually lives and dies but for a moment, or lives and dies moment by moment, as each moment leads to the next. A person is what he is in the context of the time in which he exists. It is an illusion to believe that the person you have seen just now is the same as the person you are just now seeing or the person whom you are seeing now will be the same as the person you will see after a few moments. 

Even from a scientific point of view this is true. We know cell divisions take place in each living being continuously. Old cells in our bodies die and yield place continuously to the new ones that are forming. Like the waves in a sea, every moment, many thoughts arise and die in each individual . Psychologically and physically he is never the same all the time. Technically speaking, no individual is ever composed of the same amount of energy. Mental stuff and cellular material all the time. He is subject to change and the change is a continuous movement.

Impermanence and change are thus the undeniable truths of our existence. What is real is the existing moment, the present that is a product of the past, or a result of the previous causes and actions. Because of ignorance, an ordinary mind conceives them all to be part of one continuous reality. But in truth they are not.

The various stages in the life of a man, the childhood, the adulthood, the old age are not the same at any given time. The child is not the same when he grows up and becomes a young man, nor when the latter turns into an old man. The seed is not the tree, though it produces the tree, and the fruit is also not the tree, though it is produced by the tree.

The concept of impermanence and continuous becoming is central to early Buddhist teachings. It is by becoming aware of it, by observing it and by understanding it, one can find a suitable remedy for the sorrow of human life and achieve liberation from the process of anicca or impermanence.


from - www.hinduwebsite.com