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Buddha Taught Everything is Impermanent + Everything Changes.But Buddhas teachings arnt impermanent?
Buddhas Teachings are still around from 2500 years ago.
The Buddha clearly stated that EVERYTHING is impermanent.He didnt say only some things are, so we cant pick and choose what is impermanent. He says EVERYTHING is. But the teachings itself are still around and you could say that the teachings havent changed either. And if they have changed over time then that is proof that Buddhism is all just opinions and no one knows what real buddhism is.
He says that nothing lasts forever. But again buddhas teachings might spread even more and therefore could be around forever and ever. Whos knows? EVERYONE IN THE ENTIRE WORLD COME BECOME A BUDDHIST. (even if we dont live to see that day.
But what are your thoughts on this guys?
Is everything really impermanent. What about Impermanance itself. Wouldnt that be 'permanent' if it were true?
Or is impermanace impermanent?
The Buddha clearly stated that EVERYTHING is impermanent.He didnt say only some things are, so we cant pick and choose what is impermanent. He says EVERYTHING is. But the teachings itself are still around and you could say that the teachings havent changed either. And if they have changed over time then that is proof that Buddhism is all just opinions and no one knows what real buddhism is.
He says that nothing lasts forever. But again buddhas teachings might spread even more and therefore could be around forever and ever. Whos knows? EVERYONE IN THE ENTIRE WORLD COME BECOME A BUDDHIST. (even if we dont live to see that day.
But what are your thoughts on this guys?
Is everything really impermanent. What about Impermanance itself. Wouldnt that be 'permanent' if it were true?
Or is impermanace impermanent?
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Comments
As far as the idea of impermanence being impermanent, well that is very confusing. I think the idea is that nothing is absolute(even though the word "nothing" is an absolute term). Is your head spinning yet? Mine is
Here is my official take on it:
Everything changes and simultaneously nothing REALLY ever changes.
Impermanence is not a "conditioned phenomena." Impermanence is a way of describing "conditioned phenomena." Such as "all conditioned phenomena are impermanent."
For example, lets say, "all cherries are red," but is red also red? It is a meaningless inquiry. Red is not a "thing" that can be said to have a color. Red is just a way of describing something. Do you understand?
A storm is not permanent but it always comes back. A river may be dry in the summer but when the rains come it fills up with water. It is like the heart. Have you found that you felt desicated for a time only to fill up again?
Normally we feel up with conditional things we grasp at and find them ultimately self defeating and unsatisfying. But when we fill up with the wish for enlightenment and compassion for all beings...that is a tree that grows stronger even as its fruit drops, is consumed, and rots.
This is a hard topic unless u see it throw the perspective of dependent origination.
From ignorance as condition, formations arise, then consciousness arise,name and form, six sense bases, contact, feeling, craving, clinging, existence/being, birth and finally aging/death/pain/suffering/grief.
"Impermanent are all COMPONENT things,
They arise and cease, that is their nature:
They come into being and pass away,
Release from them is bliss supreme."
Thats Impermanence (Anicca). With this - comes that - without this- that doesnt come.
By letting go of every link of dependent origination, every condition, and finally letting go of the last condition, ignorance, u experience the unconditioned, nirvana.
Thats what the buddha mean with that concept.
With metta.
So, your ability to be inspired by the teachings and to further understand how the teachings are incredibly relevant to your life, in this moment (by really analyzing the teachings about suffering first and then about its causes, cessation, and the means to accomplish this), and your ability to then generate a sense of urgency, diligence, conviction, faith, joyful effort, vigilance, meditative equipoise, and concentrations---all of this depends on everything you've done up to that point where your life and "the dharma"intersect. The dharma YOU encounter is personal; the tenets that YOU form, that inform your actions and experience, are YOUR tenets, no matter what tenet system you follow. Saying you practice Zen doesn't mean you have Zen tenets, Zen mind, Zen anything. It means you know the word Zen and maybe practice at a place that has the word "Zen" in it and maybe have a teacher who is referred to as a Zen Roshi or Sensei. Your mind may be completely wild, all over the map; your understanding of your mind may be nonexistent, and your ability to understand the instructions of your Zen teacher my be nil.
If beings start living for 1000 years and up and generally die because of an accident rather than disease or old age (or maybe suicide, when they get tired of the game), how relevant will the dharma be then? Just as relevant for a small number of beings but probably very ignored by the vast majority who inhabit the world at that time, who may find references to sickness and old age a bit quaint and "like your head is on fire" unfathomable, since they have absolutely no sense of urgency. This is a reason that the Buddha had the foresight to explain that the dharma itself does degenerate over time as its relevance to people's life shifts and, in this case, wanes over time.
Anyway we DO have the teachings today. You have incredibly good access to them; plenty of qualified teachers, and some leisure time and the fortune to live in a place where you have the ability to practice without interference (well, depends where you live I suppose). So...make your lives meaningful.
What the Buddha described is the nature of everything. Impermanence and Not-Self apply to everything that has ever been or will be, and Dukkha applies to mind/experience except liberated awareness.
If everything has always changed in our experience, for what reason would we ever suspect that that would change? It would be the purest speculation on our part. It's the fundamental fact of existence, and it's also the core to understanding our predicament.
("The only thing that stays the same is everything changes.")
I believe impermanence is permanent.
I also believe impermanence is impermanent.
Oh Buddhism, how I love your contradictions
"Monks, whether or not there is the arising of Tathagatas, this property stands — this steadfastness of the Dhamma, this orderliness of the Dhamma: All processes are inconstant."
Dhamma-niyama Sutta