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what 'doesn't' last
genkaku
Northampton, Mass. U.S.A. Veteran
I don't know about you, but I have an incorrigible habit of assuming or hoping that things will last. Contrary to all intellectual and emotional evidence to the contrary, still I catch myself assuming or hoping. Buddhism will last, shoes will last, love will last, underwear will last, job will last, friends will last, pleasure will last ... the list is endless.
What a strange habit when the evidence points to what seems to be an opposite conclusion -- things do not last.
But even that conclusion doesn't last very well. The five toes on my foot yesterday appear to have lasted into today.
Buddhists can point to the word "ego" and weave a compelling narrative. But narratives don't really last either.
Why, with all the evidence available, am I not laughing and at ease? What's the matter with the truth?
... You know, the truth that doesn't last?
Just noodling.
What a strange habit when the evidence points to what seems to be an opposite conclusion -- things do not last.
But even that conclusion doesn't last very well. The five toes on my foot yesterday appear to have lasted into today.
Buddhists can point to the word "ego" and weave a compelling narrative. But narratives don't really last either.
Why, with all the evidence available, am I not laughing and at ease? What's the matter with the truth?
... You know, the truth that doesn't last?
Just noodling.
0
Comments
always on the lookout for that thing that lasts. impermanence is quite reliable.
My thought whilst reading your list was; yes, all these things listed will last but they won't last for the 'you' and 'me' as we picture ourselves. They will still continue to exist but like you and me, they will change with time, sometimes existing more predominately and other times appearing not to exist at all.
It can be because at the back of our mind we still feel that we are the body. It is the body which makes us continue to feel uneasy when faced with the cold reality that we all must undergo change (birth-death).
I'll be stupid up until my last breath.
As @AHeerdt says, this is hopeful in that painful moments will pass, nothing is fixed or permanent.
I'm working on this myself, trying to realize and be more mindful when in the throes of pain or grief that it will pass.
Meditating on self/non-self has been helpful.
And still things don't last.
:aol:
In the 'bad moments' do not cling to this lasting forever. Also experience them as they are and do not avoid the feelings as having an aversion to them will make them last longer and prevent us from experiencing new moments as they arise
I do think that meditation and being more mindful has allowed the happier moments to last longer than the painful moments. Letting go, letting go.
plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.....
I get it from reading the scriptures about the "unconstructed, unfabricated", the truth", etc, etc. This thing that he is talking about, call it a thing for the sake of grammar, can't be impermanent precisely because it is unfabricated, unconstructed, to begin with. The Buddha only taught that the 5 aggregates is what is impermanent. The truth of the 3 marks of existence (anicca, dukkha, anattaa) has always been true and will always be true. These 3 marks of existence are a permanent truth regarding the 5 aggregates. So the truth is not a thing itself, but simply the true nature of these things. The nature of these things is that they are impermanent. The fact that all these things are impermanent, is what is permanent. Because these things can't be any other way, they have never been any other way and never will be any other way. We might think they are some other way but according to the Buddha, that is delusion. So what is permanent is not "some thing" but simply the nature of things in that all of them always have been and always will be impermanent, permanently. That is what I get from it.
Does any of that make any sense?
..a friend calls speaking up "turd burglary"
does that mean taking the piss or talking crap?
you want it?
the USA has got it somewhere - and if they ain't got it - they'll probably be able to get it!
Reminds me of this:
Of the skin he made him mittens,
Made them with the fur side inside,
Made them with the skin side outside.
He, to get the warm side inside,
Put the inside skin side outside.
He, to get the cold side outside,
Put the warm side fur side inside.
That's why he put the fur side inside,
Why he put the skin side outside,
Why he turned them inside outside.
(After Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "Hiawatha")
author uncertain.