..續本文上一頁ddition, if we realize the truth of impermanence, then no matter what happens, we can face it fully at ease. Just now, I met a lady who came to Hong Kong by air, more than seventy kilometers away from her home, to catch up her husband, since she heard that he”s meeting with another lover in Hong Kong. She is very upset, saying that her husband used to love her so much, but now he completely changed. She asked me what she could do about it. Then I just told her, “Everything is impermanent. As he used to love you and now does not any more, this is exactly the impermanence. On your side, even though you still love him, but after some time, you may get entirely disappointed and even want to kill him. With impermanence, any impossible thing could become possible, so you don”t need to cling to the past so firmly…”

　　Not only our mind keeps changing, nothing can remain same and stable. So what else can we trust

　　 Neither your house, your wealth, nor your body, can escape from the domination of impermanence. As you become older and older, with fewer teeth and more white hair and wrinkles, some people get more anxious. They wish to “mend” their bodies with high technology to retain their youth. Nevertheless, the footprint of impermanence cannot be clearly scraped off.

　　Therefore, we have to understand the teaching that all compounded phenomena are impermanent. It not only benefits our life, but also encourages our dharma practice. Keeping impermanence in our mind, the renunciation of this world can really arise, and furthermore, we can get enlightened with the emptiness of self and break free from samsara.

　　For some Buddhists, they have great passion to run after virtuous deeds superficially, such as chanting sutras and releasing animals; but do not worry about the eradication of ego. We should know that, having a human body and practicing dharma are not easy for us, and if this time we didn”t use them to free ourselves from birth and death, how much longer do we need to stay in cyclic existence to encounter dharma again

　　 This is a big issue that each of us has to reflect on.

　　Therefore, we can”t remain dharma practice at a superficial level. As you can see, other religions also have certain rituals and charities to help people. This is just a small part of the Buddha”s teaching. More importantly, the Buddha taught us to recognize the true nature of mind through dharma practice and thoroughly break the chain of birth and death. I wish all of you to make more efforts in this aspect, and treat it as the essence of dharma practice.

《A brief Talk on Impermanence in Buddhism》全文閱讀結束。