Contemplation of impermanence

The Buddha exhorted us to contemplate the impermanence of conditioned

realities. Contemplation of impermanence is not merely thinking

about impermanence, it is the direct knowledge of the arising and

falling away of a nama or rupa that appears, one at a time. We should

realize our ignorance of realities which appear one at a time. We know, for

example, that pain does not last, that it falls away. But do we know the

realities which are there when we have pain? There are different namas and

rupas when we feel pain. The rupa that is hardness may appear, or the

nama that is bodily painful feeling, or the nama that is mental unpleasant

feeling and that accompanies dosa-mula-citta (citta rooted in aversion). We

are ignorant of the different namas and rupas that arise and fall away when

we have pain, we usually think of an idea or concept of pain, we take it for

“my pain”. There must be a precise understanding of the difference

between nama and rupa before their arising and falling away can be

realized. The direct understanding of impermanence is a later stage of

insight-knowledge and this stage cannot arise before the first stage of

insight-knowledge: the knowledge of the difference between the

characteristic of nama and the characteristic of rupa.