Impermanence
By Dhammacaro
That ‘everything is impermanent’ becomes evident to all of us as we witness life; babies are born every day and so, too, the young and old die just as fast every day. Life is a series of changes. This is the truth of existence. If we can find and accept this truth, we can live in peace and happiness. If, however, we cannot, we will live in fear and worry. For this reason we should remind ourselves daily of impermanence. This reminds me of a Zen story, from which we can also learn. Here is the story:
There once was a young man who wanted to face real life. So he left home and travelled to seek the real world. During his travels he reached a village and met a certain young family, where the wife was pregnant and the husband was hard working. They welcomed him and invited him to stay with them. He was there for just one day and night. During that time, the husband suddenly died and his wife mourned so much that it affected her pregnancy and she gave birth prematurely. The young traveler saw death and birth in quick succession. He saw the impermanence that caused both grief and happiness. The wife grieved at the loss of her beloved husband and yet was happy to have a baby. He helped that family with the funeral service and then continued his travels.
He arrived at another village. Here he knew two brothers: one was successful in business and another one was not. He smiled at life and moved on to another village. A year went by and he returned to the same village and met the same two brothers. Then he discovered that the one who was successful had failed and the one who had not been successful was now doing well in his business. He saw how change happens in life; how success and failure had brought both fulfillment and disappointment.
Time passed by. After he had travelled for many years he realized that he was getting old. He thought that it was time for him to return to his home town. This period of travelling had let him come to know both departure and return. He felt that life offered no control, but impermanence and was just a series of changes. He realized that youth changed to old age, past to present and future. Impermanence meant that there was no guarantee that there would be a tomorrow. The here and now is the only time which everyone has. It took a life-time for this man to understand life as it was. At the end of his life, he rested in peace and happiness.
The man in the story understood the impermanence of life to the extent that there was no doubt that he could rest in peace and happiness. Do we ourselves understand this? The Buddha, a great teacher, said, “Everything is impermanent” and challenged and welcomed the world to prove it otherwise. Everything goes through the same series of changes, from birth to death, from success to failure and back again, from departure to return and back again. Do we recognize this in life? Or do we still cling to the impermanent as permanent. If we see the impermanence of existence, we can realize life as it really is. Then we can be awakened from ignorance. The awakened life is wise, giving us insight into the truth of life, which is impermanent. Impermanence is the starting point of accepting life as it reveals itself to us.
Do you see how important it is to understand impermanence? If you do, you will be released from attachment, or clinging. If you do not, it’s time to observe closely how you live. In this way, you may come to see that life is indeed impermanent. It changes all the time, doesn’t it?
Hi, I would just like to say a very big thank you to Dhammacaro and to all of you that help with the website. I often come to the Dhamma Corner and read. I have learnt so many good things and put them into practice. Thank you again and I look forward to my next return. Kind Regards, Brian ;0)
You are welcome,