Know all things to be like this:
A mirage, a cloud castle, A dream, an apparition,
Without essence, but with qualities that can be seen.
Buddha
We all know we would die. Or putting it in another way, our body would die.Our mind would die. But will we die?. Were we born in the first place?. All these are questions we always have. One thing is certain our body would die. What is uncertain is when. This helps us to postpone our worries about death to a later point. I bring up this subject only to tell you about Impermanence. If you look around the world , you see so many things coming and going. Our body and mind are no exception. If i tell you about impermanence , we would all agree that it is a fact. But do we live that way?. That is the deep question. Since we have internally postponed our worry about death , we don't want to see impermanence in its natural form. Hidden deep within our psyche we know . But on a day to day basis we ignore it.
You might ask what is the good in looking and understanding impermanence. The importance is profound. If everything is not lasting for ever , then what is the importance of them. Obviously when we see a soap bubble, we know it would burst the next moment, Its beauty is only transient. But this is only a philosophical teaching. As we continue our life we forget it continuously. This is why spirituality tells you to look at impermanence deeply. What is the real meaning of it apart from a philosophical truth. The real meaning of impermanence is that an entity such as a soap bubble can never exist independently. Its affected by so many things around it. The wind , the tension inside the bubble , the temperature of the surrounding air and so on. So its existence is also dependent on all of these factors which are innumerable. If everything is interdependent , it is no wonder that a particular thing doesn't last forever. When conditions change , the thing also is affected. So impermanence is a pointer towards interdependence.
So when we see death and see impermanence of body we understand the deep interconnection of life. The myriad conditions which it depends on , the connections it has with other people , nature and so on.It also points towards change , its transient nature and lack of individual importance. The short message of impermanence is that there are no individual existence . The totality is what is important. All small and individuals change and pass away. But the totality is always present in a different form . If that is so what are the importance of incidents in life?. They are even more transient.
So the profound nature of impermanence needs to be applied to each and every moment in life. Instead of just understanding it just as a philosophical truth,we need to see how it translates into our thoughts emotions and feelings. When the transient nature and interconnection is seen we no longer become worried about the changes. We can see why something worrisome is happening. One because everything is impermanent , the fact that it is so is because it is connected and dependent on so many things and that change is natural.
The most interesting things about impermanence is that it tells you that all things are truly devoid of intrinsic meaning. The wave that we see is only a disturbance of water brought about by dependency of water and air. In essence there is no wave . Only a dependence arising . When that happens we see it as a wave rising and settling down, thinking that a wave is born and dying. All things are connected and hence there is continuous change all around, We perceive it as birth and death.
As we sit in meditation we see the fleeting nature of the mind through its thoughts feelings emotions and so on. Worries come, happiness comes. They come and go like the wind. Is there any meaning attached to it intrinsically?.Remember this; all impermanence is devoid of meaning. This application of the understanding would helps us to let go of the thoughts and become calmer. So the truth of impermanence needs to be applied not just understood. As we see death we are seeing something profound . The interplay of the unity of everything. Ignorance comes when we worry over individual happenings.
A mirage, a cloud castle, A dream, an apparition,
Without essence, but with qualities that can be seen.
Buddha
We all know we would die. Or putting it in another way, our body would die.Our mind would die. But will we die?. Were we born in the first place?. All these are questions we always have. One thing is certain our body would die. What is uncertain is when. This helps us to postpone our worries about death to a later point. I bring up this subject only to tell you about Impermanence. If you look around the world , you see so many things coming and going. Our body and mind are no exception. If i tell you about impermanence , we would all agree that it is a fact. But do we live that way?. That is the deep question. Since we have internally postponed our worry about death , we don't want to see impermanence in its natural form. Hidden deep within our psyche we know . But on a day to day basis we ignore it.
You might ask what is the good in looking and understanding impermanence. The importance is profound. If everything is not lasting for ever , then what is the importance of them. Obviously when we see a soap bubble, we know it would burst the next moment, Its beauty is only transient. But this is only a philosophical teaching. As we continue our life we forget it continuously. This is why spirituality tells you to look at impermanence deeply. What is the real meaning of it apart from a philosophical truth. The real meaning of impermanence is that an entity such as a soap bubble can never exist independently. Its affected by so many things around it. The wind , the tension inside the bubble , the temperature of the surrounding air and so on. So its existence is also dependent on all of these factors which are innumerable. If everything is interdependent , it is no wonder that a particular thing doesn't last forever. When conditions change , the thing also is affected. So impermanence is a pointer towards interdependence.
So when we see death and see impermanence of body we understand the deep interconnection of life. The myriad conditions which it depends on , the connections it has with other people , nature and so on.It also points towards change , its transient nature and lack of individual importance. The short message of impermanence is that there are no individual existence . The totality is what is important. All small and individuals change and pass away. But the totality is always present in a different form . If that is so what are the importance of incidents in life?. They are even more transient.
So the profound nature of impermanence needs to be applied to each and every moment in life. Instead of just understanding it just as a philosophical truth,we need to see how it translates into our thoughts emotions and feelings. When the transient nature and interconnection is seen we no longer become worried about the changes. We can see why something worrisome is happening. One because everything is impermanent , the fact that it is so is because it is connected and dependent on so many things and that change is natural.
The most interesting things about impermanence is that it tells you that all things are truly devoid of intrinsic meaning. The wave that we see is only a disturbance of water brought about by dependency of water and air. In essence there is no wave . Only a dependence arising . When that happens we see it as a wave rising and settling down, thinking that a wave is born and dying. All things are connected and hence there is continuous change all around, We perceive it as birth and death.
As we sit in meditation we see the fleeting nature of the mind through its thoughts feelings emotions and so on. Worries come, happiness comes. They come and go like the wind. Is there any meaning attached to it intrinsically?.Remember this; all impermanence is devoid of meaning. This application of the understanding would helps us to let go of the thoughts and become calmer. So the truth of impermanence needs to be applied not just understood. As we see death we are seeing something profound . The interplay of the unity of everything. Ignorance comes when we worry over individual happenings.
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