Anicca

Anicca (Pali; Sanskrit anitya, अनित्य) — impermanence — is the first of the three marks of existence in Buddhism: all conditioned things arise, change, and pass away.

Overview

In the Dhammapada’s triplet, impermanence, suffering, and not-self are one sequence of seeing: what arises and passes cannot be held, what cannot be held cannot be self. Insight meditation (vipassana) takes anicca as its direct object — the meditator observes arising and passing at the finest scale until clinging loosens. The Hindu traditions share the doctrine within their frame: the Gita’s “the unreal never is, the real never is not” and the pairs-of-opposites doctrine are anitya in Vedantic dress; Advaita subsumes the whole world under maya’s transience while locating the eternal in the Self.

Significance

Anicca is the hinge of Buddhist practice: craving fails because its objects fail. In art, the doctrine reads the temple’s own decay and renewal; in ethics, it grounds non-attachment without nihilism.

Verification notes

• The three-marks sequence and citations are canonical (Dhammapada 277–278; SN 36.9).
• Audited against Wikipedia (September 2026).