Tidal windstorm
Splits trees and rock,
Yet cannot last a day.
So much less, man’s work.
When a storm hits, an entire ocean of wind and rain is spent upon the land. Leaves are turned inside out, branches are torn, and even hard granite is worn away. But such gales seldom last and entire day. In spite of the tremendous amount of force that is released, the storm cannot last.
If heaven’s works cannot last a day, human works must be even less lasting. Governments barely survive from year to year, the rules of society are constantly being challenged, the family erodes, personal relationships decay, and one’s career topples. Even the monuments of the world are now being destroyed by air pollution and neglect. Nothing lasts. It is simple fact that no event set in motion by human beings lasts forever.
All our efforts are temporary. They borrow from preexisting forces, ride the current of natural events, and disappear according to the dictates of the situation. It is best to realize the transitory nature of things and work with it. Understanding the world’s ephemeral nature can be the biggest advantage of all.
The impermanence of all forms is the starting point of Buddhism. The Buddha taught that ‘all compounded things are impermanent’, and that all suffering in the world arises from our trying to cling to fixed forms – objects, people or ideas – instead of accepting the world as it moves and changes. -Fritjof Capra, The Tao of Physics, p211
Learning impermanence was (and is) a very difficult thing for me. To lose my parents to death, to lose friends over our differences and experience their lack of compassion for my suffering their absence, to lose my youth, all these things were great losses to me. It has taken a long time to accept that nothing is permanent, that all things change in time. I will grow old and die, my husband and kids will as well, and so on. Nothing in this life is permanent.
The up side is, the hard times and the things that seem like terrible evils in the world are not permanent, either. There are no situations that will not change in time, even seemingly intractable ones. People will die, others will take their place and feel differently, experience the world differently. Sometimes change may take many generations, but it does happen. And eventually, inevitably, all of us will be gone from this world.
Which is a good thing. Who wants to live forever? It would be quite sad, really, seeing this earth consumed in the inevitable ball of fire as the sun explodes.
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