Impermance in Buddhism: A Scrapbook
Impermance in Buddhism: A Scrapbook
Andrea Neo Xin Yu
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Unessay: Impermanence in Buddhism — A Scrapbook
What does impermanence mean?
Grandma & I
Grandma & I
The realisation that relationships and love are impermanent, and therefore there's a need to love without attachment.
"We recognize that these three poisons inside our heart — our attachment, our hatred, and our basic unknowing or ignorance — are the cause of our suffering in saṃsāra." — Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo
♫ Vienna, Billy Joel
Flowers
Flowers
The realisation that the world around us, that beauty, is impermanent. Cherish it in the moment.
"Being undivided is like meeting a person and not considering what the person looks like. Also, it is like not wishing for more color or brightness when viewing the flowers or the moon. Spring has the feeling of spring, and autumn has the look of autumn; there is no escaping it. So when you want spring or autumn to be diffrent from what it is, notice that it can only be as it is, reflect that it has no unchanging nature." — Dōgen Zenji
♫ Goddess, Sleeping Jesus
Halcyon
Halcyon
The realisation that the aggregates that bring people together to form an institution, are too, impermanent. Are the social fabric and bonds formed permanent, though?
"Whether we choose to indulge in a particular grouping depends entirely on our desires at that point in time... Since these groupings and designations shift and change based on our current interests and desires, Vasubandhu concludes that there is no fundamental or ultimately real basis for aggregates." — Sherice Ngaserin
♫ Walking on Sunshine, Katrina & The Waves
A Polluted Beach at Sunset
A Polluted Beach at Sunset
The realisation that much of the environmental tragedies and pollution stems from people's greed and selfishness borne by their inability/ ignorance in viewing their existence as impermanence.
"Buddhist writings describe the nature of human beings as impermanent, marked by suffering, and absent an indeifiable separate self. Misunderstanding the true nature of human beings can explain a number of mordern era behaviors and attitudes that seem environmentally short-signted and highly damaging. Modern industrial societies are well-known for high rates of consumption, much of it oriented around self-identity and self-affirmation." — Stephanie Kaza
♫ Beyond the Sea, Kina Grannis
A birthday cake with a short-lived flame
A birthday cake with a short-lived flame
The realisation, that at every moment, we are aging, changing, and a step closer to death. None of what we are experiencing is permanent.
"Suppose there were vast montains of solid rock touching the sky drawing inn from all sides and crushing the four quarters.
So too old age and death advance upon all living creatures — aristocrats, brahmins, peasants, menials, outcastes, and scavangers. They spare nothing. They crush all beneath them." — SN 3.25, tr. Bhikkhu Sujato
♫ Liebestraum No. 3 in A-Flat Major, S.541/3, Lang Lang
Mother
Mother
The realisation that the myriad of emotions I feel towards Mother are simply fleeting, and apperently, empty too.
“Mendicants, there are these three feelings. What three? Pleasant, painful, and neutral feeling. These are the three feelings.
Stilled, aware,
a mindful disciple of the Buddha
understands feelings,
the cause of feelings,
where they cease,
and the path that leads to their ending.
With the ending of feelings, a mendicant
is hungerless, extinguished.”
— SN 36.1, tr. Bhikkhu Sujato
♫ Comme au premier jour, André Gagnon
A melting bowl of dessert
A melting bowl of dessert
The realisation that form is empty also because it is changing at every moment. Ice melts into water — the most obvious method of observing the ever-changing nature of "reality".
“Form is empty. Emptiness is form. Emptiness is not other than form. Form is not other than emptiness.”
— Heart Sūtra, tr. Jay Garfield
♫ Sweet Marie, The Walters
Legs full of Mosquito Bites
Legs full of Mosquito Bites
The realisation that suffering is impermanent. This provides a sense of relief and the motivation to detach from suffering.
“But it's only suffering that comes to be, lasts a while, then disappears. Naught but suffering comes to be, naught but suffering exists.”
— SN 5.10, tr. Bhikkhu Sujato
♫ Grow as We Go, Ben Platt
The End.
for now...
Artist's Statement
Artist's Statement
Impermanence is a central theme in Buddhism that highlights the ephemeral and transient nature of the world around us. As someone who lives in this material world with tangible possessions and the concept of belonging, impermanence is a concept that is difficult for me to grasp, at least in the more metaphysical sense. I try to think about what impermanence, and hence permanence means, often to no avail.
For my unessay, I created a scrapbook that instead invokes a feeling of impermanence, that would hopefully help me better understand what the Buddhist concept of impermanence is. I believe that many of the philosophies in Buddhism are not just meant to be rationalized, but also experienced and felt.
The scrapbook consists of multiple pages, with every right page consisting of:
1. A photo, structured and taken by me, of an object or scene in myday-to-day life that reminds me of impermanence or fleetingness.
2. An excerpt from one of our readings which relates to the feeling I am trying to invoke in that photo.
3. A scannable Spotify link to a song which brings together the photo and the excerpt, as music often invokes strong feelings in me.
On each left page of the scrapbook, I relay a realization that I have come to by synthesizing my daily observations with some of the readings covered in class.
The theme of impermanence surfaces in many, if not, almost all of the readings — it is the basis of many Buddhist concepts. In some readings, impermanence is more explicitly discussed, such as in the Immersion Sutta (SN 36.1), which discusses how feelings have a beginning and end and therefore are never permanent. Another example is the Vajirā Sutta (SN 5.10), which similarly, explain how suffering is an ephemeral state.
In other readings, however, impermanence is an implied concept. For example, The Heroic Heart by Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo posits reasons to distance oneself from attachment, and one of the ways to do so is to recognise the impermanence of bonds and relationships. This recognition is not explicitly stated in the text, but is a central theme in understanding detachment.
The aim of this unessay was to consolidate my learning from the course based on the theme of impermanence, which was the biggest takeaway for me. I believe that for one to practice and understand Buddhism, links have to be drawn to daily life, for it would simply be abstract and theoretical otherwise. As I continue to learn more about and navigate Buddhism, I hope to continue using this approach of drawing theory to real life, while using compassion as a medium to accomplish this.
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