Impermanence means “ever changing”. A man is ever changing. Impermanence is expounded by Buddhism. It is a universal truth.
Mankind is attached to the notions of “permanence” and “existence”. What is the notion of “permanence”? One already has the money but wants more; one has a house but wants it bigger; one has a wife and wants her prettier. One believes only in the notion of “existence”.
If you truly believe in the notion of “impermanence”, you will not be attached to the worldly phenomena, because all things are ever changing: a beautiful person is aging constantly; money will be lost; a house will collapse; a car will break down. So, you will not be bothered too much about such things; you will not be too interested in high social status as it will fall very quickly. When you understand about the notion of impermanence, you will not be interested in such worldly pursuits.
What is the cause of attachment? Sentient beings do not understand the impermanence of the worldly phenomena and have mistaken them for being truly existing; they become attached to the phenomena which are actually transient in nature. When you understand that they do not truly exist, you will then let go of your attachment to them. When you understand that they do not truly exist, you will not want to pursue it blindly anymore. However, even when you know the theory, as long as you have not internalized the values, you will still feel inclined to grasp at those things; you will still think that you could get something out of it. One tends to cling on to physical or emotional feelings: “He treats me so well!” These are transient, temporal joy, followed swiftly by a painful experience when the situation changes.
Grand Master cited an example in his latest book entitled “Spiritual Travel in the Land of No Worries”, where Grand Master met a celestial official and asked, “Who will become the next president?” The answer was “so-and-so”. One week later, he met the same celestial official but this time, the official told Grand Master that the candidate has been replaced, because the original candidate took bribes three times. Look! That candidate just took the money from others and that cost him his presidency. This is impermanence. It was pre-arranged just last week that he would become the next president and now it became someone else, simply because he took what he did not deserve.
He gave yet another example. There was a very diligent student who did many good deeds including social services etc, but his five kids ended up being either critically ill, dead or rebellious. Grand Master could not help him. Grand Master said, “This is impermanence!” Actually, this student, in his past life, went into a partnership with five other business partners. But he killed them all and took their money. These five partners took revenge by becoming his children in this life and causing him great miseries. Finally, his house and all his belongings were burnt to ashes, and he himself was tortured badly by his illness.
Grand Master hopes that this student will survive the tests. Look, how miserable he is! He practiced with diligence and did all the good deeds, and what did he end up getting? How could he end up like that? That is “impermanence”. Grand Master knew that he committed great sins in his past life. Although he practiced well and diligently in this life, he still ended up in such a sorry state. So, when you read Grand Master’s book, you will understand the meaning of “impermanence”.
Grand Master said that one must be very careful with one’s thoughts. Harboring a single negative thought can create a bad consequence. If you think about wanting to help others, benefiting others, making offerings, observing the disciplines, doing good deeds, you will end up creating good karma. This is the universal law of cause-and-effect. Even though one cannot see the future consequences, Grand Master already told us through his spiritual travel that this world is but a cyclic existence. When one practiced diligently and yet ended up going through some bad experiences in life, one should know that it is due to his past bad karma. The bad experiences are not caused by the good practices. If you do not understand this correctly, you will fail the tests when your bad karma matures and manifests in the form of bitter experiences in life, and you will be asking, “Why so? I only ask for love, children…”
Grand Master told you that this is “impermanence”. You should let go of your attachments as early as you can while you are still healthy and strong; the earlier you let go the earlier you will achieve enlightenment; the slower you let go the slower you will achieve enlightenment. This book serves a good warning. However, I wonder how many people will do according to the teachings? Maybe one will become more alert immediately after reading the book but soon forget about it and start chasing after the “permanence” again. I hope you could go read the book and have a good appreciation of the teachings.
