What is "Impermanence" (Anicca)?
什么是“無(wú)?！?？
All phenomena in the universe exist in mutually dependent interrelationships, so that when this arises, that arises; when this ceases, that ceases. There is no permanent existence at all. Therefore, all phenomena are impermanent in nature, arising and ceasing from instant (kha?a) to instant. This is what is meant by the "nature of impermanence" and "extinction in every Kha?a" mentioned in the eleven implications of Pa?iccasamppāda, and also meant by the canonical saying: "Impermanent are all component things; subject are they to birth, and then decay." ("Aniccā vata sa?khāra, Uppādavaya dhammino"). "All Sa?khāra" denotes all things or phenomena. The word "Sa?khāra" means flux and change. Since all phenomena are in fluid and changing, they are named "Sa?khāra". The term itself implies the meaning of impermanence. The words "birth" and "cessation" actually cover three meanings: origination, destruction and cessation, or four meanings: origination or arising (uppāda or jāti), maintenance or existence (?hitika), destruction or decay (jarā or a??athatta) and cessation (nirodha). Each of the four denotes a characteristic or a state of a phenomenon: the birth of a phenomenon is called origination, the moment when it exists and functions is called maintenance, the moment when it functions but begins to decay is called destruction and the perishing of a phenomenon is called cessation. A kha?a is a very short moment. According to the description in Buddhist texts, the flicking of a finger spans 60 kha?as. "Extinguishing in every kha?a" means that origination, maintenance, destruction and cessation are all completed within one kha?a. Some people ask "why do we speak of 'instantaneously arising and ceasing' when the life-span of a person is usually about a few decades?" The Buddhist answer is that a human being's life from birth to death is a process consisting of a succession of kha?as. A human life-span, on the whole, also goes through origination, existence, decay and extinction, i.e. birth, ageing, sickness and death; but each constituent part consists of continuous arising, existence, destruction and cessation, kha?a by kha?a. Buddhist scriptures hold that the human body is completely renewed every 12 years. An entity's arising, existing, decay and ceasing or a world's origination, maintenance, destruction and cessation actually consist of instantaneous originations and cessations. Buddhist theory holds that all phenomena, without exception, originate and cease in every Kha?a, and that any admission of permanent or unchanging entity, which is called the eternity belief (sassata di??hi), is wrong.
宇宙一切現(xiàn)象，都是此生彼生、此滅彼滅的相待的互存關(guān)系，其間沒(méi)有恒常的存在。所以任何現(xiàn)象，它的性質(zhì)是無(wú)常的，表現(xiàn)為剎那（Kha?a）剎那生滅的。這就是十一義中“性無(wú)常義”和“剎那滅義”。佛經(jīng)中說(shuō)：“諸行無(wú)常，是生滅法”，就是這個(gè)意思?！爸T行”，就是指一切事物或一切現(xiàn)象?！靶小笔沁w流變動(dòng)的意思，一切現(xiàn)象都是遷流變動(dòng)的，所以叫做“行”。這個(gè)字的本身就包含了無(wú)常的意義?！吧鷾纭倍?，實(shí)際上包括著“生、異、滅”三字或“生、住、異、滅”四字。這里每個(gè)字表示著一種相狀：一個(gè)現(xiàn)象的生起叫做“生”；當(dāng)它存在著作用的時(shí)候叫做“住”；雖有作用而同時(shí)在變異叫做“異”；現(xiàn)象的消滅叫做“滅”。剎那是極短的時(shí)間，佛經(jīng)中說(shuō)彈一下指頭的時(shí)間有六十剎那。剎那生滅，就是一剎那中具足生、住、異、滅。有人問(wèn)，一個(gè)人的壽命一般有幾十年，怎么是剎那生滅呢？佛教把人的一生從生到死叫做一期，一期是由剎那剎那相續(xù)而有的。對(duì)一個(gè)人的整體來(lái)說(shuō)，他有一期的生住異滅，即生、老、病、死；但從他的組成各部分來(lái)說(shuō)，則是剎那剎那的生住異滅。佛經(jīng)說(shuō)人的身體每十二年全部換過(guò)一次。一個(gè)物體的生住異滅，一個(gè)世界的成住壞空，實(shí)際都是剎那生滅相續(xù)的存在。照佛教的教義，一切現(xiàn)象沒(méi)有不是剎那生滅的。佛教把主張“有常恒不變的事物”的見(jiàn)解叫做“常見(jiàn)”，認(rèn)為是錯(cuò)誤的。
