Further Cemetery Reflections and Photos
Everything that we’re involved with in our daily life is impermanent. There’s not a single thing in the existence of the universe that is a product of cause and effect that doesn’t change. The very nature of cause and effect is that things change.
In fact, the subtle level of impermanence, the very coming into being of something, assumes the passing away of it. You can’t have one without the other. You can’t have anything that exists that is within the process of cause and effect that doesn’t change, that doesn’t come and go. Come and go. Come and go.
And that includes our self: death is definite. Intellectually, we know it, but emotionally we cling instinctively to a strong sense of being permanent, unchanging. Intellectually it’s clear to us; emotionally we’re living in denial of it. And remember, across the board, what Buddha is saying is that we have within our mind a whole series of misconceptions about how we think things are, but in fact we’re not in touch with how they are.
(Venerable Robina Courtin)
Given Buddha’s assertion that this consciousness of mine didn’t begin at conception and goes back and back and back, and that it will not end at death, will continue just into the future — it’s indestructible this consciousness of ours; and given that whatever I have said, done, and thought in this life, and in infinite previous ones, necessarily leaves a seed in my mind that just doesn’t disappear; and given that seeds ripen in the future as one’s own experiences: negative actions of body, speech and mind necessarily leave seeds in my mind that will ripen as suffering and positive actions leave a seed in my mind that will ripen as my happiness in the future; and given that I don’t want suffering and do want happiness — given all this, then it follows logically that at the time of death the only thing that is of any use to me is the positive seeds in my mind. That’s it.
(Venerable Robina Courtin)
Lama Zopa says, “Best to think, ‘I will die today.’” If you really want to practice, best to think, “I will die today”. Because then you won’t waste your life. That’s the point Atisha [a great Indian master and scholar, and author of many texts] wants from us by contemplating these things right here, because it will energize us not to waste this precious life, not to waste this opportunity.
(Venerable Robina Courtin)