Impermanence is a relational and relative concept, it provides relationships between all phenomena and therefore these are relativized. It is not the testimony of a static world, but of a world in transformation and even death is then a phase of this process of transformation.
Unfortunately, people in this particular historical period, that of the contemporary world, are not used to thinking in terms of impermanence. So they are absolutely unable to accept it. This creates great emotional friction, great inner suffering which is precisely the anxiety of living.
The first form of impermanence we reject is ours
That is our end, and from here it is all a game to go down to all the little everyday things. A distinctive element of existence is not accepted, that things change and cease, this is impermanence. A distinctive element of life such as oxygen for the atmosphere, without impermanence there would be no existence because a fundamental ingredient of existence is changing.
Some may ask why impermanence and not transience?
Generally, Buddhist terms are always in negative form, nirvana is also a negative word, its meaning is extinction. In fact, unlike those who believe that nirvana is something similar to heaven, in reality, it is the extinction of suffering and the pain of life. Whoever reaches it does not go to a celestial kingdom but is a person who has overcome suffering on this earth. This is why the Buddha is called the Enlightened One.
Our analysis on the end in general and ours, in particular, is incomplete, but it is because our knowledge on the subject is incomplete and will always remain so. It is this deep unknown space that scares everyone, believers and non-believers alike.
We moderns fill the dying room with confusion, crowd it with doctors, bury it under food, medicine, and injections. Our agitation throws the patient into anxiety and fear and has no way of achieving peace of mind.
He doesn’t know how he is going to die, and we often don’t tell him he’s going to die. He is consigned to doubt and anxiety. In these conditions, he will have no way of experiencing the victory over death, he will not be able to achieve emptiness and extinction without residue at the point of death.
In the Buddhist tradition, extinction without residue means that the person no longer reincarnates because he has overcome karma and death. By overcoming all fear and pain, he no longer needs to go back to suffering in the different forms of life chosen by karma.
Unfortunately, to free ourselves from the suffering generated by impermanence, we must not eliminate this, but our way of thinking that does not make us accept it.