Most people ignore life’s transient nature, focusing instead on what they want to last forever. They wish for perpetual health, eternal youth, and long life. In business, they think only of profits, never losses. They want to maintain favorable conditions, resisting all changes. Yet, from a Buddhist perspective, everything - whether physical objects we can see or intangible things like thoughts and ideas -  is ephemeral and subject to change.

       Many misunderstand this fundamental truth of constant change as being pessimistic. But the fleeting nature of existence isn’t pessimism - it’s simply reality. Understanding life’s impermanence isn’t meant to make us despair about life. Rather, it reveals the universal law about existence -  impermanence is just how things are.

       We tend to see death as distant and unrelated to our lives. Though we know countless people die each day around the world, these deaths feel remote and don’t seem to mean anything since they don’t touch us personally. Only when death claims the life of our loved ones does its reality truly hit home. This shows how numb we’ve become to impermanence. We’re so numb that we only grasp life’s transient nature when confronted by the personal loss of loved ones. Otherwise, we remain completely oblivious to it.

       Those with deep insight into impermanence, or those of greater wisdom, can awaken to the truth simply by observing the passing of things such as the cycle of flowers blooming and withering. Why have we not awakened and found liberation? Because we fail to understand the transient nature of life. Death is universal - others die, we will die, anyone could die at any moment - this is impermanence. Even those who know intellectually that everyone must die never contemplate their own mortality, believing they are still young and healthy and that death is far away. Many remain unawakened even when death stares them in the face.

       We think we’re clever, but we’re actually quite foolish. Every day, countless people die. Every day we witness tragedy and loss - accidents and disasters strike without warning. Yet, we are blind to the impermanent nature of existence.

       What, then, is impermanence?

       Everything with form does not last. Everything formless - our thoughts, ideas, concepts - is equally fleeting. This fundamental truth means nothing has ever-lasting, independent essence. Take our bodies, for instance. We think they're solid and real. Yet they’re just temporary combinations of the four elemental properties: solidity, fluidity, energy, and motion (traditionally called earth, water, fire, and wind). Everything in existence, from individual beings to the entire universe, is just a gathering of causes and conditions. We learn from Buddhist teachings that when such causal conditions dissipate,  the relevant things will end.。

       If we seek something eternal and unchanging, we encounter a different concept altogether - what the Buddha called ‘Buddha-nature.’ Why do we aspire to rebirth in the Pure Land? Because Amitabha Buddha, whose very name means Infinite Life and Infinite Light, embodies the true meaning of permanence. The things that ordinary beings pursue are impermanent, while eternal bliss can be found in the Pure Land. In the Pure Land of infinite light and life everything manifests according to one’s wishes. This is what is truly eternal.

       When we clearly understand the reality of impermanence, we seek liberation from this transient existence. The best path is to recite “Namo Amitabha Buddha” and attain rebirth in Amitabha’s Pure Land. There, we enjoy the same infinite light and infinite life as Amitabha.

(Translated by the Pure Land School Translation Team;
edited by Householder Fojin)