Impermanence is Good News

We used to cry a lot when things don't last, in my case for instance I cried when my grandparents passed away, when I watched sad movies when heroes die and when my cat was run over by a car one day. Impermanence is such a sad thing to me.

Yet, when I have the time to take a step back, and I inspect the world at large, I suddenly feel that impermanence is such a beautiful thing. Over the past two years, three of my beloved Buddhist figures died e.g. Master Thich Nhat Hanh, Venerable Guang Chao, and my personal friend and zen roshi Adam "Genkaku" Fisher. It might seem like such a sad thing when they died, yet it is their lifetime of doing good, doing together that they made such a beautiful difference to me. I don't feel sad when they left me, instead I feel happy because they lived purposeful and fruitful lives.

I still might feel sad if one day my parents leave me, but at this point I am really grateful that they give birth to me and raised me for the past 42 years. I am not a perfect son and student, and I am still working on improving myself, but once again, Impermanence is Good News. I don't want my loved ones to live forever if their quality of lives is horrible, instead, as the Buddha taught approximately, better to live one day as a well-disciplined practitioner, than an entire lifetime of heedlessness. I am happy for all my elders who have lived long enough, may they pass on safely when they are ready to seek a more auspicious afterlife.