The gross mark of impermanence is fully evident as soon as you pay attention to it. If we do so it becomes clear that everything that arises must at some time pass away, that whatever comes into being must pass out of being, that whatever is put together at some time comes apart. This is evident in the cosmic process, in the course of history and in the course of our lives.

The gross mark of Impermanence

The Buddha teaches that the cosmic process goes through four stages of development.

Then after sometime, the process repeats itself. In this way every world system arises, evolves and passes away. In history we find the same pattern. A civilizations arises, reaches its zenith, declines and eventually perishes. In life, we are born and grow up, when growth reaches the maximum it is followed by ageing decay and death. Nothing in life is absolutely reliable. Fortune changes, character and relationships evolve and dissolve. That is the gross or coarse feature of impermanence.

The subtle mark of impermanence is more difficult to grasp. This indicates not only that everything produced eventually perishes, but that being itself is really a process of becoming. Buddha points out that there are no static entities, but only dynamic processes which appear to us to be stable and static only because our perception is not sharp enough to detect the changes. Things themselves are constantly undergoing changes just as a waterfall is always changing but from a distance it seems solid, because we can't perceive the flow.