Whatever is subject to origination is all subject to cessation.

This sentence is a standard English rendering of a core Buddhist insight into impermanence (anicca): anything that arises due to causes and conditions will inevitably pass away when those conditions change. In the early discourses, this principle is repeatedly used as a diagnostic tool in contemplation—observing the arising and ceasing of bodily and mental phenomena—to weaken attachment and the sense of a permanent self. The formulation is especially associated with the moment of “Dhamma-eye” awakening in which a listener realizes the general law of conditioned existence, a realization that underpins the Buddha’s teaching on dependent origination and the cessation of suffering.

The quote states a universal rule about conditioned things: whatever begins is not stable, and therefore cannot be clung to as lasting, reliable, or truly “mine.” Its significance is practical rather than merely metaphysical. By seeing that all experiences—sensations, emotions, thoughts, and even identities—arise from conditions and then cease, one loosens craving and aversion, the forces that perpetuate suffering. The line also implies hope: if suffering is something that originates due to causes, it too can cease when its causes are removed. Thus impermanence becomes the basis for liberation rather than despair.

“Whatever is subject to arising is subject to ceasing.”
“Whatever has the nature to arise has the nature to cease.”
“All that is subject to origination is subject to cessation.”