The real meaning of Anicca is that Impermanence or Decay is the inherent nature of everything that exists in the Universe, whether animate or inanimate. . .

The Buddha taught His disciples that every-thing that exists at the material level is composed of “Kalapas”. Kalapas are material units very much smaller than atoms, which die out almost immediately after they come into being. Each Kalapa is a mass formed of the eight basic constituents of matter: the solid, liquid, calorific and oscillatory, together with colour, smell, taste and nutriment.

The first four are called primary qualities, and are predominant in a Kalapa. The other four are subsidiaries, dependent upon and springing from the former. A Kalapa is the tiniest particle in the physical plane, still beyond the range of science today. It is only when the eight basic material constituents unite together that the Kalapa is formed.

In other words, the momentary collocation of these eight basic elements of behaviour makes a mass just for that moment, which in Buddhism is known as a Kalapa.

The life span of a Kalapa is termed a “moment” and a trillion such moments are said to elapse during the wink of a man’s eye. These Kalapas are all in a state of perpetual change or flux. To a developed student in Vipassana Meditation they can be felt as a stream of energy.

The human body is not, as it may appear, a solid stable entity, but a continuum of matter (Rupa) coexisting with mentality (Nama). To know that our very body is tiny Kalapas all in a state of change is to know the true nature of change or decay.

This change or decay (Anicca) occasioned by the continual breakdown and replacement of Kalapas, all in a state of combustion, must necessarily be identified as Dukkha, the truth of suffering.

It is only when you experience Impermanence (Anicca) as suffering (Dukkha) that you come to the realisation of the truth of suffering, the first of the Four Noble Truths basic to the doctrine of the Buddha.

Why?

Because when you realise the subtle nature of Dukkha from which you cannot escape for a moment, you become truly afraid of, disgusted with, and disinclined towards your very existence as mentality-materiality (namarupa), and look for a way of escape to a state beyond Dukkha, and so to Nibbana, the end of suffering.

May all beings be happy and may Peace prevail in the world

Sayagyi Thray Sithu U BA KHIN - translated by M.Bergamini -