The Painful Beauty of Impermanence

By Leo Babauta The cherry blossom falls after its short beautiful bloom. It floats gently down to earth. Its life is over, but the limitedness of its existence is one of the biggest reasons the blossom is so gorgeous. If we knew that the blossom would last forever, it wouldn’t have the same poignant beauty, and we’d take it for granted. The blossom’s impermanence, its fleetingness, its transience — this is why we appreciate it. Our lives are similarly short. We have but a moment on this rock, but we forget that impermanence and take our days for granted. We fritter away those days with the wasted activities of TV, social media, computer games. If we remember the impermanence of life, perhaps we could appreciate its gentle passing with as much appreciation as a cherry blossom. Impermanence and Suffering Our struggle with impermanence causes much, if not all, of our suffering. We don’t want things to change, we want things to be the way we want them. And when they aren’t, we are stressed out, frustrated, disappointed, grieving, mourning, wishing things were different. But what if we could accept this impermanence, accept the reality of this moment, embrace it as we do the cherry blossom? We might be a bit more at peace with reality: My wife’s father has dementia, and this means the painful decline of his life. This is understandably hard for those of us who love him, but what if we could appreciate the beauty of his life, and who he is...
Source: Zen Habits - Category: Life Coaches Authors: Tags: Happiness Source Type: blogs