Chapter 9 Chapter 1 Artificiality and Impermanence-3

Without relying on any scientific tools at all, Prince Siddhartha sat under a bodhi tree on a cushion of auspicious grass to explore the nature of human beings.After a long period of contemplation, he finally realized that everything that exists, including our flesh and blood, all our emotions and all our feelings, is composed of more than two elements.When two or more elements were combined, new phenomena were created: nails and wood made tables; water and leaves made tea; and fear, piety and savior made gods.These final products do not exist independently of their individual elements.To believe that it exists in its own right is the greatest deception.While reconciling, each element also changed.Just by contact and union, their nature changes accordingly.

He realized that this is true not only of human experience but of all things, the world, the universe, that everything is interdependent and therefore everything changes.Of All That Is, nothing exists in an independent, permanent, pure state.Not the book in your hand, not the atom, not even the gods.Therefore, anything that exists within the reach of the mind, even if only imagined, such as a four-armed man, is dependent on the existence of something else.So Siddhartha discovered that impermanence does not mean death, as most people think, but change.Any change in position or relationship between one thing and another, even in very small increments, is subject to the law of impermanence.

Through these realizations, Siddhartha finally found a way to relieve the pain of death.He accepts that change is inevitable, and that the dead are part of the cycle.And he further realized that there is no omnipotent power that can reverse the path of death, so he will not be trapped in anticipation.If there is no blind expectation, there will be no disappointment.If you can understand that everything is impermanent, you won't be attached to it; if you don't be attached to it, you won't worry about gains and losses, and you can truly live fully. Siddhartha awakened from constant illusion, so we call him Buddha, the Enlightened One.Today, 2,500 years later, we know that his discoveries and teachings are invaluable to scholars and illiterates, rich and poor, from Ashoka to Allen Ginsberg, from the From Blair to Gandhi, from the Dalai Lama to the Beastie Boys, countless beings have been inspired by it.On the other hand, if Siddhartha reappeared today, he would probably be quite disappointed, because most of his discoveries have been neglected.This does not mean that modern science is powerful enough to deny his discovery. Up to now, no one can live forever. Everyone will die eventually, and about 250,000 people die every day.Those close to us have either died or will die.Yet we are still shocked and sad when a loved one dies; we continue to search for the fountain of youth, or the secret to longevity.Frequent visits to health food stores, jars of dimethylaminoethanol and vitamin A at home, strong yoga classes, Korean ginseng, plastic surgery, marine Lana lotion... etc., these are our inner desires for longevity like Qin Shihuang Proof of agelessness.

Prince Siddhartha no longer needed or desired the elixir of life.He was liberated by the realization that all things are combined, that there is no end to their deconstruction, and that none of the components of All That Is exist in an independent, permanent, and pure state.All that is combined (which we now know to mean everything) is one and indivisible with its impermanent nature, like water and ice.We get the best of both worlds when we put ice cubes in our drinks.In the same way, when Siddhartha saw a person walking by, even if he was healthy, what Siddhartha saw was the simultaneous birth and death of that person.You might think that such a view of life is not very interesting, but being able to see two sides of the same body at the same time in the journey of life can be very amazing and can be very satisfying.It's not like going up and down on a roller coaster of anticipation and disappointment.Seeing things this way, expectations and disappointments dissolve around us, and your perception of phenomena transforms and becomes clearer.You can easily see why people get stuck on a roller coaster and naturally feel compassion for them.One of the reasons you have compassion is because impermanence is so obvious that people don't see it.