Impermanence

It is said that when a male penguin falls in love he searches for the smoothest pebble on the beach to present to his love. If the female penguin keeps the pebble in her nest, she has accepted his love. Finding love is joyful. But separation is painful. When an elephant's partner dies, he is left heartbroken. He can't stop crying. Many elephants starve themselves to death after losing their partner. When, in the dairy industry, a calf is separated from the mother cow (so the milk can be consumed by humans), she suffers. She bellows in pain for many days.

Let us look deeply into the suffering of the mother cow and the elephant lover. When we lose a loved one, we suffer. The first emotion is sadness. Next we are hit with fear and anxiety. Where is my calf? What will happen to him? Desperation takes over as time passes. The mother cow struggles to free herself. Failure to gain freedom leads to despair. She experiences helplessness. Hope fades away. Samsara becomes an unhappy, unsatisfactory existence. There is no more joy in living. The elephant lover too, a victim of the suffering caused by death, starves. Perhaps hoping that death will reunite him with his love. Regret emerges. Mother cow regrets that she could not practice walking meditation with her calf in the green fields, free from slavery. The elephant lover wishes he had paid more attention to his partner.

Death and separation cause suffering. According to our Guru-Buddha, Thich Nhat Hanh, impermanence makes everything possible. So meeting and parting, birth and death, are possible. But in reality these are notions. A cloud transforms into rain, rainwater evaporates as water vapor to become cloud again. A cloud never dies. If we look deeply, we know that the cloud is in us. There is no separation. Death and separation are mere notions. Thanks to impermanence the cessation of notions like birth and death is possible. A Buddha is free from notions. So if we want to be free from the suffering of death and separation, we have to practice to manifest as a Buddha. This is possible due to impermanence. Long live impermanence!

Now, looking at the elephant lover we may say, "How painful is suffering of separation. So painful, that the lover dies. We better not meet, we better not fall in love. We better practice celibacy." But we cannot avoid death by practicing celibacy. We will see our friends die. We will see our family members die. We may decide to train train our mind to turn away from samsara but that will not alleviate others' suffering.

We may decide to free the cow mother. We may reunite her with her calf but how can we guarantee that she will not become the elephant lover in her next life? The cessation of suffering is not truly possible unless all sentient beings become Buddhas.

Let us say that there is a man who thinks he can be happy if he is rich. He goes about accumulating wealth. He does not help the poor. He does not help his neighbors or friends or family. One day robbers come and take it all away. Now no one may come to his rescue.

We may acquire Buddha-qualities. But one day when we are frail, someone else must show the Buddha-quality of compassion to help us walk. When we meditate upon impermanence, death and separation, we can see clearly that we need enlightened communities. We need everyone to be enlightened.

Moved by the sufferings of the mother cow, the elephant lover, our own sufferings and that of all sentient beings we pledge to follow the instructions given by our Guru-Buddha so that we may one day become enlightened and help liberate all sentient beings.

Thanks to impermanence we have a human birth and have come into contact with the dharma. Many great teachers have emphasized on the preciousness of a human birth, and more so of a human birth when one has found a Guru-Buddha and the dharma. This beautiful verse from Shantideva will remind us to make the most of this opportunity:

"So hard to find such ease and wealth,
Whereby to render meaningful this human birth!
If now I fail to turn it to my profit,
How could such a chance be mine again?"

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#Shantideva