常無常 (nityānitya, "permanence and impermanence") is the core philosophical category through which Buddhism investigates the true nature of all dharmas, the essence of the Tathāgata, and the distinction between the conditioned (有爲, saṃskṛta) and the unconditioned (無爲, asaṃskṛta). It is by no means a mere philosophical definition, but rather the "diagnostic chart" and "map" of the entire path of liberation for breaking attachment, revealing self-nature, and entering the middle-way reality.
One-sentence definition: it is the core category in Buddhism for investigating the true nature of all dharmas and the realm of the Tathāgata, maintaining that one must transcend the two extreme delusions of 常 (nitya, "permanence") and 無常 (anitya, "impermanence") and enter the middle way.
What This Concept Is Saying
Within the progressive stages of the path of liberation, 常無常 (nityānitya) encompasses three core dimensions: conventional impermanence (世俗無常), ultimate permanence (勝義常住), and, at the final level, the middle way (neither permanent nor impermanent).
1. Distinguishing Conventional Impermanence from Ultimate Permanence
In the early stage of practice, Buddhism uses 無常 (anitya, "impermanence") as medicine to break the ordinary person's attachment to the permanence of worldly phenomena. * 世俗無常 (conventional impermanence; 有爲法, saṃskṛta-dharma, conditioned phenomena): Whatever arises from causes and conditions and involves construction (有爲) is impermanent. The scriptures divide all conditioned dharmas into 色法 (rūpa-dharma, form dharmas) and 非色法 (arūpa-dharma, non-form dharmas): * 色法 (form dharmas): namely, the four great elements of earth, water, fire, and wind and all material phenomena they produce (including our physical bodies and the external objective environment). * 非色法 (non-form dharmas): namely, 心心數法 (citta-caitta-dharma, the mind-king and mental factors). The 《大般涅槃經》 (Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra) emphasizes that our mind is also impermanent, because it is "攀緣異、相應異、分別異" — its object of attachment differs, its corresponding factors differ, its discrimination differs. From the eye-consciousness to the mind-consciousness, their essential nature, perceived objects, and corresponding mental states differ from moment to moment and shift along with conditions. Because people see similar mental activities occurring in succession, they mistakenly believe there is a permanent, unchanging "self" or "mind" — this is essentially mistaking a similar serial continuity of arising-and-ceasing for permanence. Whatever appears in the manner of "milk producing curd" — "not previously existing, now existing" — is impermanent. * 勝義常住 (ultimate permanence; 無爲法, asaṃskṛta-dharma, unconditioned phenomena): In contrast to the impermanence of what arises from causes and conditions, whatever is "not born of causes and conditions, without construction" — the unconditioned dharmas — is called "permanent" (常, nitya). This includes 涅槃 (nirvāṇa), 如來 (tathāgata), 佛性 (buddha-dhātu, buddha-nature), and 虛空 (ākāśa, space). * The permanence of nirvāṇa (涅槃之常): Because the Tathāgata has completely extinguished all afflictions (the fire of the knots), it is ultimately cool and serene; the blazing fire of affliction never arises again — unlike the ordinary person who temporarily suppresses afflictions only to have them recur, which is impermanent. * The permanence of buddha-nature (佛性之常): Buddha-nature is unborn and unceasing, neither coming nor going; it is not included in the three times (past, present, future), is not made by causes and conditions, and is not held within 陰界入 (the five aggregates, eighteen elements, and twelve sense bases — 五陰/五蘊 pañcaskandha, 十八界 aṣṭādaśa-dhātu, 十二入/十二處 dvādaśāyatana).
In addition, the scriptures specially distinguish the permanence of conventional truth (世諦之常) from the permanence of ultimate truth (勝義之常): in the world, ripened rice and gold refined from ore stably bring benefit, so in conventional terms they may be called "permanent"; but this is only a temporary continuity. In ultimate truth (勝義諦, paramārtha-satya), only nirvāṇa and buddha-nature are ultimately abiding.
2. Rejecting Non-Buddhist Views of Permanence and Impermanence
The scriptures specifically clarify the essential difference between the ultimate meaning of the Buddha's teaching and the views of non-Buddhists (外道, tīrthika): * First-meaning permanence vs. the non-Buddhist "inconceivable permanence": The "eternal" spoken of by non-Buddhists (or philosophical dogmatism) is built upon delusion regarding conceptual reckoning and linguistic signs ("所作性非性," the non-nature of made-ness); its essence is like 兔角 (śaśa-viṣāṇa, "rabbit horns") — an abstract concept that does not exist at all. The Buddhist "first-meaning permanence, inconceivable" (第一義常不思議) is free from nature and free from non-nature, free from all opposition; it is a self-realized state personally witnessed by 自覺聖智 (pratyātmāryajñāna, the noble wisdom of self-realization) in the place beyond words and thought. * Analyzing the seven erroneous views of impermanence: The 《楞伽經》 (Laṅkāvatāra-sūtra) analyzes and negates the seven non-Buddhist views of impermanence (such as "discarded after being made" 作已而捨, "destruction of shape" 形處壞, "identity with form" 即色是, "the middle of form's transformation" 色轉變中間, "nature" 性, "nature and non-nature" 性無性, "non-arising of all dharmas" 一切法不生). When non-Buddhists observe the four great elements and derived material forms, because they do not realize that everything before their eyes is 自心現量 (svacitta-dṛśya, the manifestation of one's own mind — the display of one's own deluded thoughts), they calculate arising and ceasing upon material phenomena and fall into various erroneous views.
3. The Middle-Way View of the Tathāgata's Essence: Neither Permanent nor Impermanent (Neither Permanent nor Non-Permanent)
At the ultimate meaning of the Mahāyāna, Buddhism no longer stops at the duality of "the world is impermanent, nirvāṇa is permanent," but further breaks attachment to the very concepts of "permanent" and "impermanent," entering the middle way (中道, madhyamā-pratipad).
* Neither permanent nor impermanent (非常非無常; 《楞伽經》): * If one says the Tathāgata is "permanent," one falls into the error of the non-Buddhist 神我/作者 (puruṣa/kartṛ, "self/agent-creator"), treating the Tathāgata as some fixed entity; * If one says the Tathāgata is "impermanent," one equates him with worldly conditioned dharmas and produces the error that "when the aggregates are destroyed, he should be cut off" (陰壞應斷) — yet the Tathāgata is never cut off. * Therefore, the Tathāgata is "neither permanent nor impermanent." But from the standpoint of the wisdom obtained without interval (無間所得智), which is perfumed by prajñā and not by 心意意識 (mind, thought, consciousness) or 陰界入 (aggregates, elements, sense bases), one may provisionally designate him as "permanent." * Neither permanent nor non-permanent (非常非非常; 《大般涅槃經》): * Not permanent (非常): Because the Tathāgata, conforming to the world, manifests with awareness, with speech, with a clan name (the Gautama clan, 瞿曇氏), with parents, with the four deportments of walking, standing, sitting, and lying down (四威儀), and with specific locations (方所) — these formed manifestations do not exist in a purely abstract permanent dharma such as space (虛空). * Not non-permanent (非非常, i.e., not impermanent): Because the Tathāgata has eternally cut off arising and ceasing, is unborn and natureless, pervades all places, is without name and without form, without cause and without effect, and is not included in the three times — therefore his essence is absolutely not the impermanence of the world.
In a word: permanence and impermanence are opposing "two dharmas" (二法), while the "dharma of non-duality" (不二之法) is the quiescent middle-way reality.
A Walkthrough in Daily Life
To avoid reducing 常無常 (nityānitya) to an abstract philosophical term, we can use the familiar modern scenario of working overtime and scrolling through one's phone to see how we fall into delusion in daily life, and how we can use 常無常 as a mirror for examination:
Step 1: Examining "Form Dharmas" (The Four Great Elements and Derived Forms)
* Scenario: Late at night working overtime, you sit in front of the computer, eyes sore, shoulder muscles stiff, the coffee in your hand gradually going cold. * Wrong mapping: You think "my body is falling apart," "this computer is terrible," "the office at night is so cold" — treating the body and external environment as fixed, substantial objects. * Alignment with classical definitions: All of this is 色法 (rūpa-dharma, form dharmas) — the four great elements of earth, water, fire, and wind and what they produce. The hardness of the shoulders (earth), the dampness of the coffee and the blood (water), body heat and the cooling of the coffee (fire), the breath and the movement of air (wind) — all are flowing transformations of gathered causes and conditions. They change from moment to moment without a single instant of pause; their essence is 無常 (anitya, impermanence).
Step 2: Examining "Non-Form Dharmas" (Mind and Mental Factors)
* Scenario: You receive a revision request from your supervisor. In an instant anger rises, followed by anxiety about your career prospects, then it turns into helplessness, and finally you numb yourself by scrolling through your phone again. * Wrong mapping: You think "I am an anxious person," "my personality is just this quick-tempered," taking this whole chain of mental activities as a permanent, unchanging "self (mind)." * Alignment with classical definitions: The scriptures point out that the "mind" is impermanent because it is "攀緣異、相應異、分別異" — its object of attachment differs, its corresponding factors differ, its discrimination differs. The eye-consciousness sees the text on the screen (eye-consciousness attaches to an object), the mind-consciousness interprets the tone (mind-consciousness discriminates), and then corresponding mental factors of anger or anxiety arise (corresponding factors differ). The anger of one moment and the numbness of the next differ in nature and differ in object — they are merely a similar serial continuity of mental arising and ceasing. There is no fixed "anxious self" at all.
Step 3: Examining the Seven Delusions and Non-Buddhist Views of Worldly Impermanence
* Scenario: In a short video you scroll to, you see that a once-viral internet company has gone bankrupt, or some celebrity has fallen from grace. * Wrong mapping: You lament "time is merciless, all things move toward destruction (形處壞, destruction of shape)," or think "there was originally a good company, and now it has become nothing (先無今有, not previously existing, now existing)" — falling into a fatalistic, passive, world-weary view of impermanence. * Alignment with classical definitions: This is precisely the non-Buddhist view of impermanence that the 《楞伽經》 refutes. You treat external phenomena (companies, celebrities) as objective entities independent of the mind, calculating arising and ceasing upon their "destruction of shape" or "midpoint of transformation." You fail to realize that all these phenomena and your own emotional fluctuations are, in essence, 自心現量 — the discriminative manifestation of your own deluded mind.
Step 4: Entering the Middle-Way Examination of "Neither Permanent nor Impermanent"
* Scenario: You become aware of your body's fatigue (impermanence of form dharmas) and the rising and falling of your emotions (impermanence of mind dharmas), but you also glimpse a deeper awareness — whether anger arises or subsides, the awareness itself that "perceives" the anger and fatigue was not born with the anger, nor does it cease with it. * Wrong mapping (falling to either extreme): * *Falling to the permanence extreme*: You excitedly exclaim: "Found it! This awareness is the unchanging 'great self' — I am the eternal sovereign!" (Falling into the non-Buddhist error of the agent/creator.) * *Falling to the impermanence extreme*: You despairingly think: "Since even the mind arises and ceases, everything is meaningless; life is just an empty annihilation." (Falling into the error of "when the aggregates are destroyed, one is cut off.") * Alignment with classical definitions (the middle way): * Not permanent (非常): This awareness can manifest working in life, can speak, and has a tired bodily appearance (the Tathāgata manifests with awareness, with speech, with the four deportments) — it is not a rigid, static "permanence" like space (虛空). * Not impermanent (非無常): The essence of this awareness (佛性/自覺聖智, buddha-nature / the noble wisdom of self-realization) is not cut off with the arising and ceasing of emotions; it is not made by causes and conditions, and is not included in the three times. * Departing from permanence, departing from impermanence, directly realizing 自心現量 — this is the present-moment "neither permanent nor impermanent."
Why Contemporary People Need It
Contemporary life is highly symbolized, algorithmized, and geared toward rapid obsolescence, causing modern people to swing violently between the two extremes of "permanence" and "impermanence," producing a deep spiritual crisis:
1. Deluded attachment to "permanence" leads to enormous anxiety of losing control: Modern society, through commercial contracts, property titles, hierarchical systems, and personal pages on social networks, creates the illusion that "life can be permanently fixed." People demand that their bodies never age, their careers never stop rising, and their relationships never fade. When 無常 (impermanence) — such as unemployment, aging, separation — inevitably arrives, people experience devastating psychological collapse. Understanding that 有爲法皆無常 (all conditioned dharmas are impermanent) is the first step toward deconstructing this false sense of security and gaining psychological resilience.
2. Falling into the impermanence trap of "nihilism": Another common contemporary malady is the "shallow view of impermanence" — since everything passes, since even the neurotransmitter activity of the brain arises and ceases randomly (equating brain neurons with the mind), then effort is meaningless, morality is meaningless, everything is absurd. This is precisely the annihilationist view of "when the aggregates are destroyed, one is cut off" (陰壞應斷) that the scriptures warn against. The ultimate permanence and middle-way wisdom shown in the 《大般涅槃經》 and the 《楞伽經》 tell us that behind the phenomena of arising and ceasing, there is 自覺聖智 (the noble wisdom of self-realization) and 佛性 (buddha-nature) that do not arise and cease with causes and conditions. This provides modern people with the ultimate spiritual anchor that transcends nihilism.
3. The "spiritual anchor" in the age of brain science and AI: Contemporary brain science tends to reduce consciousness to electrochemical reactions of neurons (the interweaving of the four material great elements with mind and mental factors), and the development of AI makes people doubt whether human thought is merely a "flowing, impermanent thing" evolved from data training sets. The Buddhist middle-way view reminds us: the electrical signals of the brain and the evolution of computing power all belong to the impermanent mind that is "born of causes and conditions, attaching and discriminating"; but that 自覺聖智 (the noble wisdom of self-realization) which transcends linguistic signs and can be self-verified apart from words is absolutely not a product of data and causes and conditions.
*(Note: Although modern brain science, neuroplasticity research, and AI algorithm models provide excellent empirical phenomenological parallels when describing the "moment-to-moment serial continuity and flowing with conditions of mental activity (the impermanence of mind and mental factors, 心心數法無常)," scientific research is based on third-person objective observation and material attribution, and its scope is strictly limited to the empirical level of "conditioned dharmas / form dharmas and mind dharmas (有爲法/色法與心法)." At present, it can neither confirm nor refute the "noble wisdom of self-realization" and "ultimate unconditioned" (勝義無爲) that Buddhism says are invisible to the third person. Analogies help in understanding phenomena, but one must not equate scientific theories directly with ultimate reality.)*
Common Misreadings and Clarifications
Misreading 1: Reducing "The Impermanence of Form Dharmas" to "The Body Ages"
* Clarification: Many people think impermanence simply means "people are born, age, get sick, and die; the physical body decays." But the classical sources clearly define that 色 (rūpa, form) includes the four great elements of earth, water, fire, and wind and all material phenomena they produce — including both our bodies and the external objective world (mountains, rivers, land, phones, urban architecture). All material forms arise and cease moment to moment; it is not only the physical body.
Misreading 2: Understanding the "Mind" in "The Mind Is Impermanent" as "Some Specific Thought"
* Clarification: People often say "the human heart is fickle" and think "the mind is impermanent" merely means thoughts change and ideas change. The definition of the mind's impermanence in the 《大般涅槃經》 is much deeper: it refers to the entirety of 心心數法 (citta-caitta-dharma, the mind-king and mental factors). This includes from our eye-consciousness and ear-consciousness up to the mind-consciousness — their essential nature (性異, differing nature), their perceived objects (境界異, differing objects), and their corresponding mental states (相應異, differing correspondences) are all processes of arising and ceasing that attach to conditions. Even the feeling itself of "I have a stable personality/soul" is an impermanent mental construction.
Misreading 3: Thinking That Because Buddhism Teaches "Impermanence," Buddhism Is Passive and Pessimistic
* Clarification: This comes from not understanding the complete teaching of Buddhism. The 《大般涅槃經》 clearly states that "impermanence" is merely a means to break through the deluded attachments of ordinary people; it is not the endpoint of Buddhism. The scripture establishes that 涅槃 (nirvāṇa), 如來 (tathāgata), and 佛性 (buddha-nature) are the ultimate permanence (unconditioned dharmas, 無爲法). Buddhism does not exclusively proclaim annihilation and passivity; it guides beings to liberate themselves from worldly impermanence and personally realize the ultimately abiding buddha-nature.
Misreading 4: Treating "Ultimate Permanence (Buddha-Nature)" as a Fixed Entity Like a "Self" or "Creator"
* Clarification: This is one of the most serious errors. The 《楞伽經》 specifically emphasizes that if one understands the Tathāgata or buddha-nature as a fixed "permanent entity" with the power to act as sovereign, one falls into the non-Buddhist error of the "agent (sovereign, 作者/主宰者)." The ultimate realm of the Tathāgata is the middle way of "neither permanent nor impermanent." It transcends the duality of "having substance (nature, 性)" and "lacking substance (non-nature, 無性)"; it is the non-dual reality personally realized through 自覺聖智 (the noble wisdom of self-realization) within 自心現量, far removed from verbalization and deluded thought.