Anicca: Impermanence That Transformed the Way I Live

There are words we hear many times, yet it can take years before they truly find a place within us.

For me, Anicca - the Buddhist teaching of impermanence - was one of them.

For a long time, I understood the concept only intellectually: I knew that everything changes, that nothing remains the same, that life is movement. Yet this rational understanding did not prevent my resistance to change, my need for control, or my tendency to cling to people, sensations, or ideas of who I “should be.”

True transformation arrived when the mind and body began to speak to one another.

That dialogue was born from two experiences: a deep reading of *Each Moment Is the Universe* by Dainin Katagiri, and my first Vipassana meditation retreat, where impermanence stopped being an idea and became a physical experience.

A Book That Opened an Inner Door

Each Moment Is the Universe was, for me, a masterful book- a clear and accessible gateway into Buddhist philosophy.

One sentence struck me with the force of a revelation:

“Each moment is the entire universe.”

It was not poetry. It was a direct invitation to fully inhabit this moment and to let go of what is no longer here.

Through Katagiri’s words, I understood that *Anicca* is not a thought, but a way of relating to life- to emotions, relationships, certainties, and doubts. Reading ceased to be information and became an inner experience.

Vipassana: When the Body Understands What the Mind Already Knew

Months later, I attended a ten-day Vipassana meditation retreat. Entering silence for such a long time felt like stepping into an inner laboratory.

Without external stimulation, every sensation became clearer. And then it happened: *Anicca* became embodied.

During the practice, we observe the body with equanimity, noticing how everything changes - a pressure that dissolves, warmth that cools, a tingling sensation that appears and disappears. For the first time, I felt impermanence not as a concept, but as a physical truth.

I understood that clinging to any state - pleasure, pain, fear, or euphoria - is a struggle against the very nature of existence. The body taught me what the book had already prepared in my mind. That union was profoundly liberating.

How Anicca Changed My Relationship With Myself

Integrating impermanence transformed the way I inhabit myself:

* when anxiety arises, I know it will also change

* when an intense emotion appears, I allow it to move

* when my mind wants to cling, I breathe and observe

* when something ends, it hurts, but it does not destroy me

* when something new begins, I receive it with greater openness

I learned that nothing is fixed - not even myself.

We are processes, not definitions. Movement, not closed identities.

Anicca as a Daily Practice

Living impermanence does not mean loving less or avoiding pain when things change. It means living with greater presence and less fear. It means remembering that every moment is an opportunity to be reborn.

Today, when life moves- as it always does- I return to *Anicca* through meditation. And when I feel lost, I come back to the sentence that started it all:

“Each moment is the entire universe.”

Source

• Katagiri, D. (2008). Each Moment Is the Universe: Zen and the Way of Being Time. Shambhala Publications.