What is Anicca?

Have you ever felt sad on the very last day of summer vacation? You wish you had a magic pause button to make the fun last forever! But what if the fact that things end is actually the best news ever? In this mind-bending episode, Mira and Finn explore a huge idea from Buddhism called anicca, or impermanence. It means that absolutely nothing lasts forever—and that is exactly what makes life so beautiful! Travel to ancient India to learn about the Buddha, and discover the incredible secrets of Tibetan monks who spend weeks building perfectly detailed, colorful sand mandalas, only to deliberately sweep them all away into a river! Then, fly over to Japan for the Hanami festival, where millions of people celebrate cherry blossoms specifically because they fall off the trees like snow. Join the adventure to find out why growing out of your favorite dinosaur hoodie is actually a good thing! Discover how endings help us pay attention, grow up, and see the magic in every single moment. Tune in to find out why a frozen world would be boring, and why change makes our world come alive!

Transcript

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SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to Philosophy is not boring by kidopoly.com. I'm Mira! And I'm Finn. We don't have any special shout-outs today, so we are going straight into one of the biggest, strangest, and maybe most beautiful questions we've ever talked about. Oh wow, what is it? Well, to start, I want you to picture something. Imagine it is the very last day of the best summer holiday you have ever had.

SPEAKER_00 0:29

Oh, I hate that feeling. The car is all packed, your swimsuit is still a little bit wet, and you have that weird, hollow feeling in your stomach.

SPEAKER_01 0:39

Exactly. You've been swimming, staying up late, eating ice cream, and now it is over. What do you usually wish for right in that exact moment?

SPEAKER_00 0:49

I usually wish I had a magic pause button. I just want to freeze time so the good part never has to end.

SPEAKER_01 0:56

Yes, it feels terrible when good things end. We all naturally wish the best things could last forever. But today, we're asking a question that turns all of that upside down. What's the question?

SPEAKER_00 1:09

What if the fact that things end is the only reason they matter at all? Wait, you are saying things only matter because they end? That sounds completely backwards.

SPEAKER_01 1:21

It really does at first. But think about it, if you had a magical, infinite pile of your favourite candy, and no matter how much you ate, it never, ever ran out, would a single piece of it still feel special?

SPEAKER_00 1:35

I mean, at first it would be awesome, but after a few weeks, I guess I'd probably just stop noticing it. I'd just get used to it being there.

SPEAKER_01 1:44

Exactly. To understand why this happens, we are going to explore a massive idea from a tradition called Buddhism.

SPEAKER_00 1:52

Oh, we've talked about the Buddha before. He lived in ancient India, right? He did.

SPEAKER_01 1:57

Siddhartha Gautama, who became known as the Buddha, lived about 2,500 years ago. We talked before about how he left his fancy, protected palace because he really wanted to understand why people suffer and why we feel sad.

SPEAKER_00 2:14

And he noticed that people get sad when things change. Like when we get older or when we lose things we love.

SPEAKER_01 2:21

Yes, he realised that human beings are constantly trying to hold on to things, trying to make them permanent. But the problem is, absolutely nothing is permanent. And one of his biggest ideas is a word for this. The word is anietzha. Anietcha? What does that mean exactly? It is a Pali word that translates to impermanence. It means that everything, everywhere, is constantly changing. Nothing lasts forever. Not a mountain, not a star, not a summer holiday, and not a bad mood either.

SPEAKER_00 2:57

See, that kind of sounds like bad news to me. Like, everything you love is going to go away eventually.

SPEAKER_01 3:03

A lot of people think that at first, but Buddhism makes a very surprising move here. It doesn't treat a Nietzsche as bad news, it treats it as the secret to seeing how beautiful the world actually is. To see why it is actually good news, we have to look at something incredible that Tibetan Buddhist monks do with sand. Sand?

SPEAKER_00 3:27

Like the kind you build castles with at the beach.

SPEAKER_01 3:30

Specially dyed, brightly coloured sand. The monks use it to make these massive, incredibly detailed circular pictures, called mandalas.

SPEAKER_00 3:41

Oh, I think I've seen a video of that. They use these tiny metal tubes to tap out just one or two grains of sand at a time.

SPEAKER_01 3:50

Yes, the tubes are called chakpa. It takes a whole team of monks days or even weeks leaning over a table in perfect concentration. They create palaces and flowers and amazing geometric patterns out of millions of single grains of sand.

SPEAKER_00 4:10

It must be the most beautiful thing ever when it is done. If I spent weeks doing that, I would want to spray it with glue, frame it, and put it in a museum forever.

SPEAKER_01 4:22

Well, here is where the anitia part comes in. When the mandala is finally finished, completely perfect, they don't save it. They hold a ceremony, take a brush, and deliberately sweep all that beautiful sand into a single grey pile. Wait, what? They destroy it?

SPEAKER_00 4:44

On purpose? Entirely on purpose. But that doesn't seem right. Why would you spend weeks and weeks making something so amazing just to wipe it away? That is so incredibly sad.

SPEAKER_01 4:59

It is a little sad, but the monks do it specifically to practice a niche. They are reminding themselves that everything in the world is temporary. Usually, they take that swept-up sand, put it in an urn, and pour it into a flowing river.

SPEAKER_00 5:16

Huh. I don't know how I feel about that. It feels like a massive waste of hard work.

SPEAKER_01 5:22

It does feel strange to us, right? We are so used to trying to keep things forever. But the monks say, sweeping it up is actually the most important part of the whole practice. The monks know that trying to hold on too tightly to things is exactly what makes us suffer. If you try to glue a sand mandala down so it lasts forever, you ruin what it is.

SPEAKER_00 5:49

Because it is supposed to be sand. It is supposed to be fragile enough to blow away.

SPEAKER_01 5:54

Exactly. And this isn't just about sand. In Japan, there is a huge cultural tradition called hanami, which means flower viewing.

SPEAKER_00 6:04

Like looking at cherry blossoms?

SPEAKER_01 6:07

Yes, the sakura, the cherry blossoms. Millions of people have festivals and picnics under the trees when they bloom. But here is the catch. The flowers only stay on the trees for about a week or two before they fall off like snow.

SPEAKER_00 6:23

Wait, so people travel from all over the world just to see something that is about to fall apart?

SPEAKER_01 6:28

Exactly. And that is the secret of Anicha. People love the cherry blossoms precisely because they fall. Think about it. If they were made of plastic and stayed on the branch all year round, would anyone have a special picnic under them?

SPEAKER_00 6:44

Oh, no, they wouldn't. Because they would just be ordinary. They would always be there.

SPEAKER_01 6:51

Right. The fact that they are leaving is what makes everyone pay attention. If things never changed, the world would be completely frozen, like a photograph.

SPEAKER_00 7:02

A frozen world sounds safe, but it also sounds kind of dead. Nothing could ever grow up. A seed could never become a tree.

SPEAKER_01 7:11

Yes, and a bad day would stay a bad day forever. You could never heal from a scraped knee.

SPEAKER_00 7:17

Anitja means we are not stuck. Okay, I definitely don't want a bad mood to last forever. So the fact that nothing lasts means the world is actually alive.

SPEAKER_01 7:27

So, let's bring this right back to your real life. Think about a favourite piece of clothing you completely outgrew.

SPEAKER_00 7:35

Oh man, I had this green dinosaur hoodie that had little spikes on the hood. I loved it so much. And then one day, my arms were just way too long for it.

SPEAKER_01 7:46

It is genuinely sad when we can't keep the things we love exactly as they are. It is totally okay to feel that sad edge. But the Buddhist idea of anicha says you don't have to push the sadness away or pretend it doesn't hurt.

SPEAKER_00 8:01

Because the sadness means it really mattered to me. And if I didn't grow out of it, it would mean I wasn't growing up. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 8:09

Noticing something is temporary is most of what it means to actually notice it. Like that last day of the holiday. You swim in the pool one last time, and you really truly notice how the cool water feels, precisely because you know you are going home.

SPEAKER_00 8:26

That is kind of amazing. The ending is what makes you pay attention.

SPEAKER_01 8:31

And people have been finding comfort in this idea for thousands of years. Here is a mind-bending fun fact. When a sand mandala is poured into a river, it isn't just to throw it away.

SPEAKER_00 8:43

It's not?

SPEAKER_01 8:44

No. Tibetan Buddhists believe the blessed sand travels down the river all the way out to the ocean, carrying its good wishes to the whole entire world.

SPEAKER_00 8:54

Oh, I like that a lot better than just sweeping it into the trash.

SPEAKER_01 8:58

Alright, Finn, time for our quiz. Let's see how much we all remember. Okay, I'm ready. Okay, first question. What ancient tradition did we explore today? Next one, this is tricky. What is the special word for impermanence, meaning nothing lasts? Question three. What do Tibetan monks make out of millions of grains of coloured sand? Alright, here is number four. Where do the monks usually pour the sand after they sweep it up? Last question. What do people in Japan gather to watch fall during the Hanami festival? Great job! Let's go through the answers and see how you did. The answer to question one is Buddhism. For question two, the word is anicha. Number three, the answer is mandalas. Question four, they pour it into a flowing river. And the final answer is cherry blossoms or sakuda. It is a really big thought to carry around, isn't it, Finn? That things matter because they don't last.

SPEAKER_00 10:24

Yeah, it is. But I think I will actually look at the last day of a vacation a little differently now. I won't just be sad. I'll pay more attention. Me too.

SPEAKER_01 10:36

Finding the beauty in change is a pretty great way to look at the world. Hey, if you listeners liked exploring this idea with us, please leave us a five-star review.

SPEAKER_00 10:47

Yeah, just scroll down on your podcast app and tap the five stars. It really helps other kids find the show. So we can all wonder about this stuff together.

SPEAKER_01 10:57

And don't forget to head over to our site, kidopoly.com. We have tons of fun learning games and cool activities waiting for you there.

SPEAKER_00 11:05

And if you want to shout out on the show, or just want to say hi, send us an email at hello at kidopoly.com.

SPEAKER_01 11:13

Thanks for thinking with us today. See you next time on Philosophy is not boring. Bye, everyone!