Nitartha Institute

What does Buddhist meditation really mean by impermanence?

"We may think impermanence means watching movement, change, flux, or something dissolving before our eyes. But from the perspective of meditation, this is still conceptual.
Why?
Because the experience of movement depends on comparing a previous moment with a later one. The mind is quietly constructing a continuum. This is helpful in the beginning. It helps us see that things are not fixed. But it is not yet the deepest meaning of impermanence.

In Mahamudra instructions, we are pointed toward something more subtle: cutting through the continuum itself. This does not mean trying to find the smallest unit of time, like some tiny physical instant. The point is to see how the mind clings to continuity.

We are not looking for an objective “smallest moment.” We are exploring how mind creates the sense of time, movement, and continuity. To rest in now-ness without turning it into “a present moment” is to rest in what might be called timelessness.

A moment without moment."

- Jirka Hladiš | Nitartha Institute Faculty | Course: Mind Only

At the 2026 Nitartha Summer Institute, students will have the opportunity to study topics like these, exploring how mind, perception, appearance, and experience are understood on the path of insight.

Join us for NSI26 and deepen your study of the Buddhist view.

Learn more and register: https://summer.nitarthainstitute.org/course-details-shedra/