Anicca · Pāli: anicca; Skt: anitya

Anicca is impermanence, and the Dhammapada states it in a line: “All conditioned things are impermanent”, and one who sees this with wisdom “turns away from suffering. This is the path to purification” (verse 277, trans. Acharya Buddharakkhita). The next two verses complete the set, “All conditioned things are unsatisfactory” (278) and “All things are not-self” (279), so impermanence stands alongside the other two marks of existence and is usually where the seeing begins.

The teaching is placed where it is hardest to miss. In the Mahāparinibbāna Sutta (DN 16), the account of the Buddha’s last days, the deities who are “freed from passion, mindful and comprehending” reflect: “Impermanent are all compounded things. How could this be otherwise?” And the Buddha’s parting words to the monks are these: “Behold now, bhikkhus, I exhort you: All compounded things are subject to vanish. Strive with earnestness!” The text then adds, plainly, “This was the last word of the Tathagata” (trans. Sister Vajirā & Francis Story).

Notice the pairing in that final sentence: the fact that everything assembled comes apart, and then the encouragement to practise while there is time. Anicca is not offered as a reason for gloom. In the Dhammapada the same seeing is called “the path to purification”, a turning away from suffering rather than a sinking into it. Our guide to living with impermanence takes that further.