Impermanence

Dhamma reflection: Dialogue between a boy with a mother on the topic of impermanence and appreciating life.

Supposing a little child has broken a cup, he will be afraid his mother will scold him. However, if the mother is wise, she will give him such advice as below.

[Boy said:]
Mum,mum, Come here and look.
The cup is broken by me.
I am so sorry about it.
I really apologize for it.

[Mum said:]
It is alright, boy.
No problem, boy.
The cup is made of glass,
So, it will be broken easily.

[Boy said:]
Why are you not angry with me?
Why do you not scold me?
Normally, you always get angry,
When I break any things, mum.

[Mum said:]
Today I realize the nature of things,
Things are impermanent,
Transient in nature.
Things get broken, sooner and later.

As long as we treasured it before,
Have used it before,
Really appreciated it before,
So it fulfilled its purpose.

We see things in positive way, son,
We see things in useful way, son,
We have used the cup to hold the water.
We have used the cup to drink from it.
It lets our body be cool and without thirst.

The cup has finished its function.
So, we are happy with it.
Now, the cup is broken.
Never mind, the cup has done its duty.

Let's us buy another cup.
Let's us appreciate another cup.
So also, we live in this moment, appreciating what we have.
Therefore, We live in this life, appreciating each other.

Impurity of the body

Beauty is only skin deep.

This is the truth, but who wants to know?

We spend money on clothes, decoration,

To beautiful this body.

It looks beautiful on outside,

It is really ugly inside.

Full of impure things,

urine, feces, sweat, snot.

We need to take care of it,

Bath it, feed it, groom it.

Taking care of it every day,

Day and night.

Yet it lets us down

By aging, sickness and death.

Not so say we should ignore it,

Because we still need it.

Just as the boat carrying passengers to other shore,

So also the body carrying us to the truth.

From the body, we learn the truth:

Impurity, impermanence, suffering and non-self.

Though it shows us this truth,

We choose to ignore it.

Welcome to the truth,

If you really like the truth.