(Speaking Tree Paper, Front Page, 02.02.2014)
Of the three most important teachings in Buddhism, impermanence (Pali: anicca, Sanskrit: anischa) is one of them. Often when teachings on this topic are given to young monks, nuns and lay practitioners, the stress is on the ever presence of death. This is so done to help turn the seekers mind inward so that no time is further lost in commencing practice since human life is relatively short. However, to a common person death is often associated with the demise or passing away of someone near and dear or the ceasing of existence of something created. Surely this means we should cherish the moments we spend with beloved ones rather than engage in energy sapping bickering resulting in nothing worthwhile.
Impermanence is therefore to be understood as ‘nothing that arises from causes and conditions or from conditioned existence can really being permanent.’ In short, if conditions change or are made to change the resulting phenomena must also change. Recently when our teacher Khenpo Sonam Tsewang came to Pune for teachings, he also had the time and good fortune to visit the caves of Ajanta and Ellora. He was awestruck with their beauty and expressed “...it was a dream come true experience. It's truly inspiring to see the power of human spirit but on the other hand, it’s sad to see the impermanence of things no matter how beautiful they are.”
Expanding the scope of impermanence further we can apply it to every single phenomenon around us. From every breath we take in and let out alternatingly, every emotion or feeling that arises and falls inside us, our ever changing physical body, birth and death of stars, rising and falling of waves, a tree responding to the seasons, movement of our thoughts through the mind...each and everything within and without us is impermanent. Sooner or later it will not exist nor be the same, but give rise to another; be transformed into a similar or different entity.
While impermanence no doubt has its side of despair and pain, it also has a bright side to it which gives us great hope and scope for opportunity.
Imagine if we there were no such thing as impermanence. It would be dreadful to undertake any practice in trying to improve our professional, personal or spiritual trajectory simply because if something were to be permanent how could it possibly be changed?
Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, a brilliant master of our times, says that we should view our present condition as ‘we have a headache’ and not as ‘we are a headache’. If we have a headache, it is possible to create some conditions like taking a tablet or a coffee and taking some rest so as to allow the headache to pass away and improve upon our previous condition. If we see ourselves as being a headache, there is no scope for this situation to change, because we are a headache and nothing could change that!
Another example Rinpoche gives is that of a shirt. Suppose we buy a brand new shirt, use it for a day and then throw it for a wash because we say the ‘shirt is dirty’. This is a mistake. It should be seen as the ‘shirt has dirt’. If the shirt is dirty there is no scope to change its condition because it is dirty and no matter what we do with it, it will remain dirty. But if the shirt has dirt on it, conditions can be created to have it washed and the dirt can be removed. The shirt and dirt are separate. Shirt is nirvana and the dirt is samsara.
A Vajrayana Buddhist’s view on nature of mind is that the shirt was never dirty to begin with!
In the same way, for example, if we are to overcome the negativity of aggression, we need to fully understand that we are not aggression but that we have aggression. By working on it we can end the aggression. In spiritual practice too the Law of Impermanence comes as great solace and hence masters stress so much on its full understanding in depth and detail. If we consider that we can do the right actions of body, speech and mind, follow the Eight Fold Path, undertake virtuous actions, shun non-virtuous ones, undertake meditative practices to slowly gain insight and wisdom it is possible to improve our present situation because the situation we are now in is not permanent and can be changed by applying the right factors and conditions.
Happy contemplation!
Of the three most important teachings in Buddhism, impermanence (Pali: anicca, Sanskrit: anischa) is one of them. Often when teachings on this topic are given to young monks, nuns and lay practitioners, the stress is on the ever presence of death. This is so done to help turn the seekers mind inward so that no time is further lost in commencing practice since human life is relatively short. However, to a common person death is often associated with the demise or passing away of someone near and dear or the ceasing of existence of something created. Surely this means we should cherish the moments we spend with beloved ones rather than engage in energy sapping bickering resulting in nothing worthwhile.
Impermanence is therefore to be understood as ‘nothing that arises from causes and conditions or from conditioned existence can really being permanent.’ In short, if conditions change or are made to change the resulting phenomena must also change. Recently when our teacher Khenpo Sonam Tsewang came to Pune for teachings, he also had the time and good fortune to visit the caves of Ajanta and Ellora. He was awestruck with their beauty and expressed “...it was a dream come true experience. It's truly inspiring to see the power of human spirit but on the other hand, it’s sad to see the impermanence of things no matter how beautiful they are.”
Expanding the scope of impermanence further we can apply it to every single phenomenon around us. From every breath we take in and let out alternatingly, every emotion or feeling that arises and falls inside us, our ever changing physical body, birth and death of stars, rising and falling of waves, a tree responding to the seasons, movement of our thoughts through the mind...each and everything within and without us is impermanent. Sooner or later it will not exist nor be the same, but give rise to another; be transformed into a similar or different entity.
While impermanence no doubt has its side of despair and pain, it also has a bright side to it which gives us great hope and scope for opportunity.
Imagine if we there were no such thing as impermanence. It would be dreadful to undertake any practice in trying to improve our professional, personal or spiritual trajectory simply because if something were to be permanent how could it possibly be changed?
Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, a brilliant master of our times, says that we should view our present condition as ‘we have a headache’ and not as ‘we are a headache’. If we have a headache, it is possible to create some conditions like taking a tablet or a coffee and taking some rest so as to allow the headache to pass away and improve upon our previous condition. If we see ourselves as being a headache, there is no scope for this situation to change, because we are a headache and nothing could change that!
Another example Rinpoche gives is that of a shirt. Suppose we buy a brand new shirt, use it for a day and then throw it for a wash because we say the ‘shirt is dirty’. This is a mistake. It should be seen as the ‘shirt has dirt’. If the shirt is dirty there is no scope to change its condition because it is dirty and no matter what we do with it, it will remain dirty. But if the shirt has dirt on it, conditions can be created to have it washed and the dirt can be removed. The shirt and dirt are separate. Shirt is nirvana and the dirt is samsara.
A Vajrayana Buddhist’s view on nature of mind is that the shirt was never dirty to begin with!
In the same way, for example, if we are to overcome the negativity of aggression, we need to fully understand that we are not aggression but that we have aggression. By working on it we can end the aggression. In spiritual practice too the Law of Impermanence comes as great solace and hence masters stress so much on its full understanding in depth and detail. If we consider that we can do the right actions of body, speech and mind, follow the Eight Fold Path, undertake virtuous actions, shun non-virtuous ones, undertake meditative practices to slowly gain insight and wisdom it is possible to improve our present situation because the situation we are now in is not permanent and can be changed by applying the right factors and conditions.
Happy contemplation!
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