Oakville Zen Meditation
Dealing with impermanence
Zen says: “
Enjoy the best of the good because it will not stay.
Accept the worst of the bad because it will not last”
While dying from mushroom poisoning, Amanda, the fidel servant of the Buddha asked him:
“Teacher: What is your most important teaching over the last 50 years?”
Without hesitation, the Buddha replied:
“ Impermanence in everything, everywhere, and anytime: Be mindful of it all your life”.
When you become mindfully aware that nothing lasts including self, and about the inevitability of permanent change, your usual attachment to them lessens somewhat, and it should.
You dis-identify and de-sensitize yourself from them.
The fear of losing what / whom you are attached to is better controlled.
It does not mean, of course,
To be totally detached, especially from your loved ones, and your social duties.
Or being unable to express enjoyment, caring, compassion, and love.
During good times:
you will enjoy better the good times, and pleasures of the world while they last without fear of loss or anxiety about the future, and because you know they will not stay.
During the bad times:
What about the bad times of life generating anger, anxiety, and suffering of all kinds you may ask?
Their impermanence will help you be patient and accept them positively, knowing that bad times are transient.
Whatever good or bad times, it is a win-win offer. It's up to you to apply it.
Conclusion:
When you become more detached from situations, events, and even people around you, you gain access to a more realistic and pragmatic perspective on them, and life in general.
It will help you to be less worried, and more serene since you accept better that things and people
are what they are, not what you want them to be.
Again, it does not imply rejecting love, compassion, or social duties. Thanks.
There are few Dharma talks on impermanence. Just go to “Dharma lectures” and then type
“impermanence” on the search icon.
Thanks
