ANICCA

Anicca

Anicca is an ancient Pali word which means Impermanence as it relates to the relative world of human existence. I first heard this word in the mid-eighties while attending a meditation course at a center in rural Shelburne Falls Massachusetts. Sitting on the floor on a thin cotton batting cushion and feeling weird and uncomfortable, I tried to stay focused and derive some benefit from this course while the teacher, a small, round, squinty-eyed, Indian man with the happiest smile I’d ever seen tried calmly to convince us that the pain would soon disappear. The longer I listened to this sweet Indian man speak, the more relaxed I became and the searing pain between my shoulders and knees seemed to fade and disappear for brief periods. He kept repeating, ‘Anicca, Anicca, Constantly changing, Constantly changing.’ After the fourth or fifth day, I seemed to grasp the essence of his teachings, and felt a deepening peace and calm. But because of my attachment to my important, busy life, I soon lost that wonderful peace of just being. These long years later, the simplicity and profoundness of this small Indian man’s teachings have returned to guide me on my path.
Buddha, Christ, Lao Tsu, Mohammed and other Mystics taught that there is no permanence anywhere. They each experienced, through deep meditation, the arising and passing away of all things. They offered a method for humans to end their suffering and misery through simply relinquishing attachment to things in the physical world. They recognized that all things are comprised of conditioned states and that there is no permanent essence to anything. This includes our physical bodies. Taking good care of the body through healthy nutrition, exercise, and spiritual practices is essential for our continued development. The problems arise when we become overly attached to our appearance and, by association, the material aspects of our immediate environment. The notion of having and enjoying nice things is a seeming, normal, modern human trait. And there is nothing wrong in this. Attachment to these things is where we lose our true essence...Our real Freedom and Spirit of Adventure. We need to grasp that sooner or later, everything in this relative, physical world becomes Compost; Everything on this planet. Our physical body grows old, becomes weak and begins to break down, and... eventually dissolves and disappears. But, as the great Mystics taught, the real us, our spirit, the consciousness that we are, never dies. In the modern societies of this world, we spend obscene amounts of time, energy, and money attempting to preserve and maintain something that is destined to wither away and die: Our physical body. This does not mean we should be neglectful... Simple good nutrition, exercise, and spiritual practices are essential, but beyond these, nothing else is necessary to realize pure, unalloyed happiness.
All suffering and discontent end the moment we embrace our true nature which is ‘Spiritual Beings experiencing Human-ness.’ Meditate on this. Let go of your attachment to staying young, amassing material wealth, being famous, or finding the perfect romantic partner. Just be. Have faith that there really is a power that knows what we need and will always take care of us. In the words of my Indian teacher, ‘Just Be Happy, for no reason.’ Charles Kuhn