Impermanence that Mindfulness Can Bring

Impermanence in Mindfulness Meditation is a very interesting topic. First, we have to remember that nothing lasts forever, and all things are subject to change. Even a mountain will eventually erode away. This is impermanence, of which we all have an innate appreciation and understanding. Indeed, we have solid experience of it when we have lost something or are disappointed in some way. However , when things are going well, we tend to forget about the impermanent nature of things.

Our natural tendency is to strive of order, permanence and certainty. Thus, until we gain a proper understanding of impermanence, we will tend to fill that we are victims of the unpredictability of life. So rather than expending our energies trying to control everything, an understanding of impermanence teaches us to be responsive to all things, but to hold on to nothing.

Through the practice of mindfulness, and a truly deep and profound understanding of it is considered a major step towards a significant expansion of consciousness. Therefore, the contemplation of impermanence is a widely practiced analytical meditation, specially within the Buddhist traditions.

One may be tempted to thing of stabilizing and analytical meditation as hierarchical levels of practice, with analytical contemplation ultimately offering a deeper potential for true understanding. Intellectual understanding is no more or less true than experiential understanding. Both are, in a way. Two sides of the same coin. both practices give ’insight’ in different ways. For example, an immediate experiential insight into impermanence can be achieved through the stabilizing practice of drawing the mind to various sensations that arise within your body during meditation. An obvious sensation is the postural, knee and foot pain that may result from sitting still. The interesting thing is that these pains not only arise but also subside if they are observed rather than fought.


A method of insight [vipassana] meditation that has spread out of burma from the Theravada Buddhist tradition emphasizes the mindfulness if bodily sensation as a core practice. The method involves a period of anapana initially to stabilize the mind, followed buy the resting of one’s mind upon any sensation that arises in the body. One technique to facilitate this process is to scan the body from head feet in a specific sequence (a sport of ‘active’ stabilizing meditation), which tends to highlight sensations of varying intensities lasting varying lengths of time always subside or move. Or sensations, whether pleasant, unpleasant or neutral, are given equal attention. In the beginning, only the more gross sensations such a pain and temperature might be perceived, but as mindfulness increases, we become mindful of our relationship, attitudes and reactions to those sensation. As the practice develops, an enhanced appreciation of the nature of change and the inherent non-solidity within the body is gained. With experience, meditators can skip or minimize the scanning stage and simply allow their consciousness to be drown to sensations wherever they arise.

This sound simple, and it is, but as usual, it is not easy. Our mind, if not ‘encouraged’, much prefers to daydream and fantasize. For most people, especially if they live Busy lives, it takes several days for them to build up to this type of meditation. Therefore, it is best done within a retreat environment of ten days or so.

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