Buddhism and the Message of Impermanence
Sogyal Rinpoche Reflects on a Core Tibetan Teaching
Mar 21, 2009
Sogyal Rinpoche, in his book The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, stresses often the important message of impermanence. Contemplating the impermanent nature of the universe, says Rinpoche, can lead to the heart of Tibetan teachings.
Rinpoche believes that life can be hollow and futile when it is founded on a false belief in permanence. Living such a life causes an individual to become unconscious, a living corpse. Yet the centuries of turmoil and tragedy, the plagues and the wars - all the terrible destruction throughout history - are no more real than a dream because of their impermanent nature.
"When you look deeply," writes Rinpoche, "you realize there is nothing that is permanent and constant, nothing, not even the tiniest hair on your body."
According to Rinpoche, this is not theory, but something that anyone can see if he or she looks deeply enough.
The Impermanent Nature of the Universe
The Buddha compared human existence to the transient nature of autumn clouds, with a lifetime being no more than a flash of lightning. Rinpoche believes that one of the main reasons that people cannot face death is because they ignore the truth of impermanence. They desperately want to believe that everything will always stay the same.
"But that is only make-believe," says Rinpoche. "And as we so often discover, belief has little or nothing to do with reality." This make-believe world is full of assumptions and misinformation, yet it often forms the foundations on which people build their lives. Despite the truth of impermanence that imposes itself on them, these people go on pretending, with hopeless bravado, as their foundations crumble from beneath their feet.
Yet it is only be recognizing the impermanent nature of the world around them will they have something to hold on to, something lasting. It is only the impermanent nature of the universe that persists.
Reflecting on Impermanence
Rinpoche thinks that individuals should reflect on impermanence and death whenever they lose their perspectives. Everything is always changing, and life is nothing but a dance of transient forms. "We are impermanent, the influences are impermanent, and there is nothing solid or lasting anywhere that we can point to."
Even people's thoughts and emotions are impermanent, according to Rinpoche. The mind is as transient as a dream. Each thought comes and then it goes. The past and the future do not exist.
He adds, "The only thing we really have is nowness, is now."
Buddha's Universal Law
The Buddha taught that there is only one unchanging law in the universe - and that is that all things change and are impermanent. Rinpoche believes that for people to understand what is at the core of their hearts, they should reflect deeply on impermanence. Because they grasp desperately to things and are terrified to let go, the impermanent nature of the universe becomes the source of all their suffering.
"And this is the tragedy and the irony of one's struggle to hold on: not only is it impossible, but it brings us the very pain we are seeking to avoid." By taking impermanence to heart, people can be freed from their grasping, from their destructive views of permanence and the false notion of security on which they've built everything.
Each of life's losses and deceptions can teach people about impermanence and bring them closer to the truth. "To enter the transforming field of that much vision is to learn how to be at home in change, and how to make impermanence our friend."
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