AMMDI Blyg

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• The observation is insightful, but the convergence — and the divergence — between these two traditions is worth unpacking carefully.

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• The Shared Intuition: Nothing Is Permanent

• Both traditions start from the same empirical observation: the world is in constant flux and nothing holds its shape forever.

• **Marx & Engels:**

• "All fixed, fast-frozen relations, with their train of ancient and venerable prejudices and opinions, are swept away, all new-formed ones become antiquated before they can ossify. All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned."

• This captures the notion of rapid and profound change — in emerging capitalist society, relationships, values, and institutions undergo constant transformation, leading to instability and uncertainty.

• Buddha:

• In Buddhist philosophy, Anicca (impermanence) is a fundamental truth of existence. Everything in life is transient and constantly changing — from our thoughts and emotions to relationships and material possessions, nothing remains the same.

• Everything conditioned is in constant change: arising, altering, and passing away. Nothing that is put together lasts. From galaxies to thoughts, all of it flows.

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• Where They Diverge: Diagnosis and Prescription

• Despite the shared observation, the two traditions diverge radically in what causes impermanence and what to do about it.

• **For Marx & Engels**, impermanence is not a metaphysical law of nature but a historically specific consequence of capitalism.

• Marx was referring to the speed with which the capital system dissolves social relationships, leaving nothing between individuals other than the nexus of callous cash payment.

• The phrase highlights the relentless pace of industrialization and urbanization, where Marx and Engels illustrate how the bourgeoisie, through its pursuit of profit and expansion, destabilizes existing institutions and social relations, leaving nothing permanent in its wake.

• The phrase is a critique — a call to political action against a specific economic system.

• For the Buddha, impermanence is not caused by any social system — it is the fundamental nature of reality itself.

• Rather than treating change as an unfortunate exception, Buddhism teaches that change is the natural condition of existence.

• The response is not political revolution but inner transformation:

• the Buddha taught that deeply understanding impermanence is liberating — it frees you from clinging to what cannot last and opens you to fully experiencing each moment as it is.

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• A Crucial Nuance in the Marx/Engels Phrase

• The original German phrase (Alles Ständische und Stehende verdampft) evokes not "solidity" but rather "standing," as in social standing.

• This is significant — Marx and Engels are describing the dissolution of social hierarchies and status, not matter itself. The Buddhist anicca, by contrast, applies to literally everything:

• everything in the universe, from the smallest particle to the vastest galaxy, is subject to constant change — including bodies, emotions, thoughts, relationships, and even our most cherished beliefs.

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• The Bottom Line

• The resonance is real: both traditions see clinging to fixed, stable structures as a source of suffering or false consciousness. But Marx sees the cure in restructuring society, while the Buddha sees it in restructuring the mind. One says the melt is imposed on us by economic forces; the other says the melt was always already the nature of things — and freedom comes from accepting that.