The Doctrine of Impermanence

Impermanence (Sanskrit: अनित्य anitya; Pāli: अिनच्च anicca; Tibetan: mi rtag pa; Chinese: 無常 wúcháng; Japanese: 無常 mujō) refers to the Buddhist notion that every conditioned existence, including gods, is inconstant and in flux. It is one of the essential doctrines or Three marks of existence in Buddhism. According to this doctrine, human life embodies this flux in the aging process, the cycle of birth and rebirth (samsara), and in any experience of loss. The doctrine further asserts that because things are impermanent, attachment to them is futile, and leads to suffering (dukkha). Impermanence is also intimately associated with the doctrine of anatta, which suggests that things have no fixed nature, essence, or self and the only true end of impermanence then is nirvana, the reality that knows no change, decay or death. .