Sand Mandala a Buddhist Symbol of Impermanence |
“Flowers decompose, but knowing this does not prevent us from
loving flowers. In fact, we are able to love them more because we know how to
treasure them while they are still alive” (131). This quote is true, we
cherish people in our life, friends, and family members, because we know (we don’t
like to think about it but deep down we all know) that friendships can change
and that people can die and so we value them and our interactions with them.
The fact that nothing is forever makes us treasure a friendship or our mother
much more than we would if everyone lived forever. This pushes us to make the
most of our time with those people and to give them the attention that they
deserve.
Impermanence is something that I have a hard time dealing
with even after learning about this concept in Buddhism. When I was young and
during the summer, after completing the 4th grade, we moved from California
to New Hampshire so my dad could retire. I was ok with this because I was young
and not really aware of what was going on, but I still had friends in Californian
and used my time left in California to hang out with them a lot. I was pretty
sure that moving all the way across the country would make keeping my friends
and actually doing things with them pretty hard. After the move I tried to keep
in contact with them but ultimately it amounted to nothing. I suffered because I
tried to hang on too long and cared too much about them. The next summer I had completely
forgotten about them and was ok with losing those friends because they were
replaced with new friends in New Hampshire.
I learned the lesson of moving on and that things change back
then and even now have learned it through my ethics class but I am still really
afraid of losing my laptop, (looking for something... a little more deep
there?) although losing a loved one will be worse but I really don’t have that
much control over family members or friends and whether or not they will stay
my friend or pass away so I don’t worry about what I don’t have direct control
over. However, my computer is under
my direct control and it is my responsibility
to keep in working order for work and entertainment. It is the possession that
I care the most about and still even now as I’m writing this blog post I would
be really upset ( to put it nicely) if it was broken or destroyed. In order to
guard against the latter it is locked to my desk all the time and as for
keeping it in good condition and working, I still have the plastic covering
over the screen on it (Now I am cheating a little here, originally it was left
on to keep dust out but now is only on it because I’m too lazy to take it off
but officially it’s because I don’t want the damn dust on the screen). I care
to much about it and would become upset if something happened to it because replacing
it would be hard to do and I don’t think I will ever be able (unless I have a
replacement for it) to not care this
much about it. If I had a replacement it would be ok but until that comes it will
remain under (literal) lock and key (Again I’m cheating here a little bit because
it will always be locked when I’m not there because that’s the smart thing to
do but I only have a lock for it because I care a lot about it, it’s a catch
22).
Nhá̂t, Hạnh. The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy & Liberation. New York: Broadway, 1999. Print.
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