Everything is Changeable

　　萬物無常

　　What exists is changeable and what is not changeable does not exist.

　　凡是存在的都在變化。永恒不變的，根本就不存在。

　　 Looking at life, we notice how it changes and how it continually moves between extremes and contrasts. We notice rise and fall, success and failure, loss and gain; we experience honor and contempt, praise and blame; and we feel how our hearts respond to all that happiness and sorrow, delight and despair, disappointment and satisfaction, fear and hope. These mighty waves of emotion carry us up, fling us down, and no sooner we find some rest, then we are carried by the power of a new wave again. How can we expect a footing on the crest of the waves

　　 Where shall we erect the building of our life in the midst of this ever-restless ocean of existence

　　 This is a world where any little joy that is allotted to beings is secured only after many disappointments, failures and defeats. This is a world where scanty joy grows amidst sickness, desperation and death. This is a world where beings who a short while ago were connected with us by sympathetic joy are at the next moment in want of our compassion. Such a world as this needs equanimity. This is the nature of the world where we live with our intimate friends and the next day they become our enemies to harm us.

　　當我們正視我們的生命時，我們會發現它無時無刻都在兩個極端和對比間，不斷的流動和變化。我們注意到世間的一切浮沈、起落、成敗、得失，我們受到尊敬和侮辱、贊譽和譴責，同時，我們也感覺到我們的心反應了幸福和憂愁、愉快和沮喪、得意和失意、希望和恐懼。這些情感的浪潮將我們托起又將我們摔下，不讓我們有片刻的休息，繼續受到新浪潮的沖擊，我們期望如何能站穩在這些浪潮裏頭？我們如何建立我們生命的大廈于此永無休止的浪潮中？

　　這世間的任何一種快樂，都是來自許多的失望、失敗和挫折之後。這世間的快樂都是病態的，在拼命和死亡之間成長。這世間在不久前和我們一起悲憫，不久後又需要我們的同情，這樣世界需要甯靜。在這樣世界裏，我們的朋友，第二天就變成了傷害我們的敵人了。

　　The Buddha described the world as an unending flux of becoming. All is changeable, continuous transformation, ceaseless mutation, and a moving stream. Everything exists from moment to moment. Everything is a recurring rotation of coming into being and then passing out of existence. Everything is moving from birth to death. The matter or material forms in which life does or does not express itself, are also a continuous movement or change towards decay. This teaching of the impermanent nature of everything is one of the main pivots of Buddhism. Nothing on earth partakes of the character of absolute reality. That there will be no death of what is born is impossible. Whatever is subject to origination is subject also to destruction. Change is the very constituent of reality. In accepting the law of impermanence or change, the Buddha denies the existence of eternal substance. Matter and spirit are false abstractions that, in reality, are only changing factors (Dhamma) which are connected and which arise in functional dependence on each other.

　　佛陀形容這世界是永無休止的變化和消長的。一切都屬于無常、變動的，有如流水一般，一切都在不停的變化、浮沈、盛衰。萬物無時無刻不在聚散于無常之中，反覆的生滅，反覆的輪回。生命不斷繼續的運行、變動而到死亡。物質或其形式在生命中，無論有沒有表現出來，也都不斷的在運行、變動乃至毀壞。這種萬物無常的本質，是佛陀教義的重點之一。絕對的真實並不屬于這個世間，有絕對就不可能有生死。不管任何事物有起源就有毀滅，無常是事物的真本性。

　　當認清楚無常的定律後，就會理解到爲什麼佛陀否定這世間有永恒的實體存在。物質和精神都屬于虛妄和抽象的，一切都是因緣假合，相互依賴而生起的作用。

　　Today, scientists have accepted the law of change that was discovered by the Buddha. Scientists postulate that there is nothing substantial, solid and tangible in the world. Everything is a vortex of energy, never remaining the same for two consecutive moments. The whole wide world is caught up in this whirl and vortex of change. One of the theories postulated by scientists is the prospect of the ultimate coldness following upon the death or destruction of the sun. Buddhists are not dismayed by this prospect. The Buddha taught that universes or world cycles arise and pass away in endless succession, just as the lives of inpiduals do. Our world will most certainly come to an end. It has happened before with previous worlds and it will happen again. ”The world is a passing phenomenon. We all belong to the world of time. Every written word, every carved stone, every painted picture, the structure of civilization, every generation of man, vanishes away like the leaves and flowers of forgotten summers. What exists is changeable and what is not changeable does not exist.” Thus all gods and human beings and animals and material forms

　　 everything in this universe

　　 is subject to the law of impermanence. Buddhism teaches us: ”The body like a lump of foam; The feelings like a water bubble; Perception like a mirage; Volitional activities like a plantain tree; And Consciousness like jugglery.” (Samyutta Nikaya)

　　今天科學家們開始接受佛陀對于無常的定律。科學家認爲世界根本沒有實體或穩固的東西，每一件東西都屬于一個流程，由兩個點聯系在剎那間産生的作用。沒有一件東西是相同的，整個世界都存在于這迅速運行和變動的流程中。科學家並不因爲這種論調而感到恐慌。佛陀說過，宇宙或我們居住的世界是循環不息，永無休止的生滅，如人類的生命一樣。我們所居住的世界會結束，以前發生過，將來也一樣會發生。

　　「世界是一個過渡的現象，我們屬于時間的世界。每一個寫下來的字、每一件石雕、每一幅圖畫、每一件人類文明的創作、每一代的人，有如夏日的落花、落葉一樣的被遺忘。有存在就有變化，沒有變化就不存在。」《相應部經》

　　宇宙的一切，如：神靈、人類、動物和一切物質，都受到「無常」這一定律所支配。

　　佛陀說：「身如泡沫，受如水花，想如霧氣，行如芭蕉，識如戲法。」《相應部經》

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