Camille Diwata

Journal #6
3/25/12
When I was in high school, I met a boy who I would come to know as my best friend. We
ate lunch together. We walked to class together. We hung out after school together. We were
inseparable. Maybe this was a nave thought for a high-schooler, but I thought we would be
friends forever. I didnt find it possible that our goals could differentiate - where academia would
come before after-school ice cream dates, where love interests would take the front seat of the
drive, or where extra-curricular activities would clog-up our free time. Toward the end of our
friendship, we fought a lot. I hurt a lot for our unraveling relationship and it was during this time
that I realized everything was impermanent.
Nothing is permanent and everything is fleeting. Possessions we own are not permanent;
relationships we have are not permanent; powers we gain are not permanent; beauty we were
given is not permanent; joy is not permanent, and in the same way, pain is only temporary. Even
if we dont realize it, we struggle with impermanence every day of our lives.
One of the beauties of Buddhism is its direct reflections on impermanence. Everything
goes and nothing stays. Unlike other religions, Buddhism teaches to embrace every moment and
kiss joy as it flies by. One of Buddhas most famous sermons, The Flower Sermon, addresses
impermanence and the transient nature of life. Because everything is temporary, everything is
sacred. Everything has value.
Impermanence is a foundation to other teachings of Buddhism. Transience is humbling
because we cannot live forever. Worries decrease because there is no time to worry. Compassion
arises out of the diminished sense of self. Impermanence transposes everything back to their
original forms ordinary, simplistic, and pure. There can be no caste or level system for what is
important in life because all things hold great importance.
To realize that everything is temporary is a great task. Even if we hold this idea in the
fore-front of our minds, we still have attachments to this world, things we see as permanent. This
is why the teachings of impermanence are also a call to movement. The teachings of
temporariness are active lessons that invite change in our lives. In order to decrease attachment
to the world, like cutting a dead branch off a growing tree, we need to cut out unnecessary things
in our lives things we think are permanent. This makes us uncomfortable and causes us pain,
lessening our willingness to partake in the teaching of impermanence.
For example, fighting with my best friend hurt my heart incredibly. I didnt want to
embrace the change at first because I was scared of losing my best friend. I wanted things to stay
the same. I was comfortable. Only after the fact did I realize that I grew from the experience. The
pain I had felt was my body realizing that I had lost something I was grateful for. The hurt was
appreciation for his friendship. I felt humbled by the fact that we werent as invincible as I
thought; we were like everyone else. Most importantly, I felt compassion towards him and
towards others that experienced what I went through with him.
Impermanence is not just a teaching; it is a way of life. The Buddha realized he was
impermanent and left the world with grace and humility because of it. Impermanence centers
your life on internal matters instead of external ones. It centers your life on the heart so that you
are able to see the heart of others.