Dhamma Talks - The Transition Of Life :: Buddhapadipa Thai Temple

There are many signs that show us the transition of life. “Impermanence, suffering and non-self” is the three characteristics of existence, taught by the Buddha, which can show us how life changes. Impermanence seems to be obvious to us as our life always changes every moment, even other things change through their life time. It is true that life begins with birth and its end is death, the interval between birth and death is both uncertain and unpredictable. There are many indicators such as old age, sickness etc. The change starts when the embryo is in womb of mother. The embryo changes or develops mentally and physically until it is ready to be born to see this world. After birth, there is a lot of change which is still going on.

The change is regarded as process of life-development. The ancient Indian philosophy teaches the transition of human life by dividing life into four ages as follows:

1. The first age of life is the age of education as we have to learn to survive such as we must learn to eat and drink and learn to communicate with others. This is to learn to develop life.
2. The second age of life is the age of family which means we finish the education which can help us survive. At this point, we begin to communicate with others and marry and establish a new family. This is one transition of life to take responsibility for our life and others, for instance family.
3. The third age of life is the age of retirement which means the time of success in life and family. Then it is time to step out of work and hand over job to successor. This is a big transition; some find it very hard to put down the job.
4. The fourth age of life is the age of renunciation which means before leaving this world, some leave home to learn or investigate the real life. When they discover the truth of life, some of them teach people but some don’t teach. Their knowledge or wisdom dies with them.

These are the points of the changing of life. There are many philosophers who talk about the transition of life, for instance, Carl Jung, a Swiss psychologist, agreed with the Indian philosophy as he divided human life into 4 ages according to an orbit of the sun, namely, morning, mid-morning, afternoon and evening. Here is the explanation;

1. Morning means childhood which needs help from adults such as parents, teachers, relatives etc. They must learn to survive from them to get ready to encounter the real world as the sun rises in the morning.
2. Mid-morning means teen-age and middle-age which build up their own family. They make money or earn a living as the sun is shining to the world.
3. Afternoon means old age. It is time to step out of work and hand over job to their successor. It is like twilight.
4. Evening means the last age. It is the time to put all the burdens down and live a peaceful life. It is like the sunset.

Carl Jung said, “The important transition of life is the morning and afternoon”. However, no matter what philosophy is, nature of life is like this. Buddhism says the birth is the first point of the changing; past to present, present to future, and transition of life, from previous to new life, is death. From birth, life keeps changing all the time, there is no gap of changing. We have to get ready for the change and accept the change, because we cannot do anything about it. One important thing which teaches us about the changing is that we must not be careless about life.