July 11, 2026

All conditioned things are impermanent — when one sees this with wisdom, one turns away from suffering. This is the path to purification.

The Dhammapada is a collection of the Buddha's core teachings, gathered by his followers after his death from decades of talks given across northern India. This verse sits in the chapter called "The Path," where he instructs monks on the three marks of existence: impermanence, suffering, and non-self. The line teaches that everything arising will pass, and that seeing this clearly with wisdom, not just believing it, is what ends suffering. Eastern practice treats impermanence as something to be directly observed, not merely accepted as doctrine; meditators watch breath, sensation, and thought rise and fall to feel this truth in the body. Suffering enters not from change itself but from the grip we put on things we wish would stay.