IMPERMANENT.VIETNAMESE TRANSLATE ENGLISH BY=THICH CHAN TANH.

A. OPENING

The greed of humans clinging to things forever and ever.

We, as sentient beings, are more or less ambitious. That ambition is closely attached to the things that we have created and captured. We just let them go, after the last breath. Strictly speaking, it is not until the last minute that we will let go of everything; we still want to hold on to them, but they leave us. We were powerless, we didn't have enough energy to hold them anymore, so we just let go of our hands to let them go, but if we still have energy, we still want to seize and desperately hold on to what has been understand. Throughout life, we still repeat the same gesture of grasping and preserving. And for life, how many times we have suffered, disappointed, because everything in life never follows our will and remains in one place. Everything is always changing, changing, Now and there, like a romantic man, like a river, like a cloud, like a horse! As time goes by, everything goes like that. In Buddhist words, that transformation and change is the law of impermanence.

B. TOPIC 

I. DEFINITIONS 

What is impermanence? Listen to the Buddha taught: "Everything in the world has been transformed, corrupted, is impermanent." So impermanence means not normal, not forever staying in a certain state; always change shape; going from the state of formation to disappearing and then dissolving ... Buddhism calls the changing stages of an object: the city, the pillar, the ruin, no (or the birth, the pillar, the void, the killing). Like a wave, when it rises, it is called a city (or being) when it rises at the highest level, it is called a pillar; when descending it is called necrosis (or deformity), when disintegrating it is called (or cessation). All things in the universe, from as small as a grain of sand to a big moon as a star, must follow those four stages, so called Impermanence.

In order to have a clearer idea of ​​impermanence, let us observe, reflect on our bodies, our minds and the circumstances in which we live, and we will know.

II. NORMAL 

"My body is healthy, young and beautiful, and my life is a poem ..." This is the superficial conception of some young men and women, too fond of their bodies forever young, or if they get old, It's still a long time, I didn't expect it to be old, it's dead, every second The following verse of the ancients really speaks to the rapid change of our body:

“ The ants of high street proves the tragedy of the scene! Trieu as tiny, grave like snow? "

(He did not see the old father looking in the mirror of the silver hair chamber! Soon as blue silk, as white as snow in the evening)

Science has proven that, in our bodies, cells change always, and every 7 years, old cells are completely renewed. The change made the body grow fast, grow old quickly and die. The body of the previous year was not the body this year, the body in the morning was not in the afternoon, every moment in our body had birth and death. The following is a very significant story to prove the impermanence of the body:

A pedestrian misses an inn in an abandoned house. At night, he saw a blue-haired demon, carrying a new dead zombie in, trying to tear the body to eat. Suddenly another demon, red hair, pushed the door into. The two demons fought over the dead body, each one said his catch first. They are about to kill the sleeves to kill each other, to win the body. Suddenly they saw the pedestrian lying in a corner of the room; they hastily pulled him out to be the arbiter, asking which of the two were the masters of the body. The pedestrian was so scared, but honestly said that the body belonged to the blue-haired demon because he saw it first. The green-haired demon was happy, thankful for his treacherous behavior; but the red-haired demon loses his prey, angrily drags his head out and decides to devour him. It presses him down, tore an arm and chew it to his mouth ... The blue-haired demon felt pity for him on foot and to show his gratitude, pulling the arm of the corpse inserted into him. The red-haired demon ripped off his other arm and continued to eat; and the blue-haired demon put the hands of the dead body into him. Just like that, whenever the red-haired demon parted a part of his body on foot to eat, the blue-haired devil took a part of the zombie to fill his body ... After eating his whole body. walking, the demon wiped his mouth full of gore, then left. The green-haired demon also followed. whenever the red-haired demon cracks a part of his body on foot to eat, the green-haired demon takes a part of the zombie to fill his body ... After eating all of his pedestrian's body, he The devil wiped his mouth full of gore, then left. The green-haired demon also followed. whenever the red-haired demon cracks a part of his body on foot to eat, the green-haired demon takes a part of the zombie to fill his body ... After eating all of his pedestrian's body, he The devil wiped his mouth full of gore, then left. The green-haired demon also followed.

The pedestrian was stunned as if he had just woken up with a nightmare and wondered: whether the current body he was carrying was his or whose?

The story on the proof shows us from birth to death, our bodies have not known how many times; and the corpse when people put it in the coffin, there is really nothing similar to the body when new born.

The water flow of the Dong Nai river, for example, looks like the water today; but yesterday water is now probably mixed with salt water in the ocean and today is the same water from the new source. So is the human body, "constantly turning like a cover" (flowing like floodwater).

But misery! Does it replace this one in exchange for another, just like the previous one! One cell is gone, another is replaced, but the previous cell is younger than the other; the latter is older than the next one ... And so on, the body goes from young to old, from life to death!

The Buddha, when he was a prince, lamented to Da Du in the palace of the king, thinking of impermanence of the human body.

"... We will grow old and wicked. Time will fill our heads with silver ashes. Oh! My inner eyes will be cloudy! Your red lips will then stain! ... I hear in you, in you and in everyone, every day broken, under the ravages of time hammer, all the precious things of human life ... we desperately holding onto, the treasures in us, like holding a shadow, like catching a wave! ".

Wisdom instead! The man is tall and young and beautiful, besides having a good wife early in the servant's day, yet still clear enough, to see the law of impermanence, smashing what is called the nobility and beauty of life! Such anguish words, not only alerted Princess Du Du, but also awakened those who were still deeply immersed in the scene of temporary life, birth, old age, sickness, death, embodying the law of impermanence. If you have a body, you must suffer from the old birth and death, and cannot survive forever. Lao Tzu also realized that the body is the source of sin, the root of suffering, so he uttered the sentence:

" Great corn, great corn, organic corn 

Ngo is unconscious, is he right? "

(I have a great misery, because I have a body,

If we don't, then what is wrong?)

Body is impermanent, but very people because they want to cultivate, nourish, and serve themselves so much that they cause so many cruel crimes! Because he wanted to be fond of himself, he was able to kill the weak animals and execute the innocent animals before dying in a creepy way. Read history, listen to Qin Shi Huang eat monkey brain live, we have sympathized with the pain of the animals killed, but the party still happy to laugh happily, not bothering to moan, shout, region waving them, how cruel it is! Where is the compassion of people? O my! Wicked and cruel, the heart of man!

Because greed is cloudy, dark conscience, so people do not clearly see the impermanence of the body and the new heart to do such cruel things!

III. MIND 

The body is impermanent, but is mindfulness common? The mind also silently changed, it was somewhat more swift and subtle, if we didn't look deeply, it would be hard to see.

Our mind changes in every moment, following the external situation: we are sad and happy, love it and get angry. A minute ago I remember this, I thought of something else later. Yesterday we were diligent in spiritual practice, today it was troublesome to rot. Just as Buddha said:

“ Human mind is like a gibbon tree, 

Like a horse in the countryside ... ”

Our thoughts die in every moment; and because it dies so quickly, we feel like it hasn't changed at all. For a child, if we say that the moving images are printed on the screen in real life, it is due to the succession of films, images that appear and disappear, to make room for other images, first. the lamp ... if we say that to a child, he probably doesn't believe it, because he doesn't understand the use of speed. In the same way, our mind is made up of each thought arising and falling away, but because we do not receive its swift transformation, we think that it is pure and immutable. The last minute must not be this minute self? And where is this minute self not the last minute? So which self is the true self? The last minute, Ego this minute or Ego minute? A poet asked a seemingly silly question but thought deeply about it:

" Who said it: do we have one ?"

The self (or the mind, too) is transient, so artificial, yet people call it the center of the universe, cling to it, in its name to be greedy and vain. , fame is around, and even if you trampled on the happiness of others, causing so much pain to your fellow people, wearing it! It was so fond of it!

IV. NORMAL ENVIRONMENT 

As above we have seen the law of impermanence everywhere, not only the body and the mind are impermanent, but the situation, the geography of the great geography, is also impermanent.

Books often have sentences:

" Commercial and funeral " (Strawberry beach)

That sentence sounded like a polished picture of literature; but actually, that is a very true comment. We often mistakenly think that only creatures are transformed and quickly die, but great objects such as mountains, rivers and sandy soil, they still remain in place forever. But we were wrong, the mountain and river also had the young old, sandy soil also when it fell. Nothing is permanent. Our proverb has many sayings about the impermanence of things in a very profound way, such as: " Change, how to move " or " Nobody is rich in three, no one is difficult in three generations ."

In fact, one of our lives has seen so many ups and downs, humiliations, and elephants on dogs. Rich, poor manners continue to take place before our eyes like a grave picture, like a movie in a cinema. How many people, before, the palatial mansion, the stork fields flew straight to the wings, but after a fire, the career suddenly became like clouds of smoke! How many people of high authority, bossy and overbearing position, yet one minute of failure, suddenly become people who pray for food, or become imprisoned!

Impermanence was palpable in front of his eyes, yet so many people were still not awake, clinging to the most flashy of the time. The baron, the mandarin, the listener of the greedy ... cause so many jokes for the indifferent guests, and present a lot of hardships for the insiders.

Once upon a time, there was a king who, after strolling through the streets, saw wealthy and prosperous people, newly born greed, wanting to confiscate their possessions, to put them in storehouses. The king immediately ordered those who had their own to relieve the court.

The commandment spread out, the house was public, but who could we complain to now? Meanwhile, a merchant, wishing to awaken the king, ventured to bring all his possessions to the capital, to the midst of the movement, offered to the king and said:

- Lower gods would like to offer all the property to the court.

The King was surprised and asked:

- I only partially recorded, why did you give it all up?

- My mother, because I think this is not the spirit of the gods, but of 5 houses: drifting water, fire, bandits, confiscation and wife and children. Lower god despite trying to preserve how, also could not help from being one of the 5 houses that he appropriated. Therefore, I would like to offer all, do not keep doing anything, so that I will not suffer from it later. I hope the king can accept it all, I thank you so deeply.

After hearing the words of the merchant, the king pondered for a long time, suddenly awakened, shyly and silently said: "This man comes to teach wisdom to me. Jiangshan our hydrangeas, can we keep it long? Or will the five houses, which the merchant just said, take? Jiangshan has not kept, let alone the property of the people! This man is my benefactor, if there is no one who brings the light to wake me up, then I will do a very cruel thing. ”

After thinking, the king ordered to stop the confiscation, and even gave money to the poor. What a precious story, to awaken those who are still immersed in fame, are suffering for themselves and those around them, because they have not yet realized the impermanence of the situation.

V. DECISION 

Someone suspects that: Buddhism says impermanence, does it accidentally sow people into the mind of frustrated life? Because things are impermanent, you should not do anything, have diligent business activities and then go nowhere. Dust, who will become ash?

Answer: The impermanence of Buddhism is a method of pointing out the reverse side of life, to eliminate the delusion, to prevent people from running after sex, it is not absolute theory.

Buddha as well as the physician depending on the disease but for medicine. With illness "usually no loss", then use the "impermanent" remedy to treat, when healed, the Buddha gave another more valuable tonic, "chon theory is often invariant". According to the Shurangama Sutta, Ananda was as mistaken as we are, so the Buddha told Mr. Rahula to ring the bell to show Mr. Ananda to distinguish the "transmutation of destruction", and the "often not." change". When the bell rang by Rahula, the Buddha asked Mr. Anan whether he heard?

Ananda answered:

- White World Religion! Listen.

When the bell rang, Buddha asked again:

- Did Anan hear?

Ananda answered:

- White World Religion! No more listening. The Buddha said to Mr. Rahula again, struck the second bell, and then the Buddha asked the same time as before, and Ananda also answered.

Buddha rebuked:

- Ananda, after that he answered silly like that?

Mr. Ananda was surprised and replied:

- Not only children but also everyone who acknowledges having a voice can hear and stop, they will not hear.

Buddha recalls:

“You and everyone have a reputation for hearing, breaking, and no longer listening; so "hearing" is lost in the sound, it may never be heard again. Why did you hear it when the second hour came? If you hear the second language, then you know it's not the end without hearing. The sound is sometimes lost, "Tanh listening" is still often unchanged. Besides, if the sound is stopped and the sound is no longer heard, then what does it know to not hear? ”

Said, the Buddha taught "impermanence" to treat common sense of sentient beings. When sentient beings understood the impermanence, the Buddha pointed out that the feet are invariant.

C. CONCLUSION 

Impermanence is a law that governs all things, from the body and mind to every situation. Understanding impermanence, we have had a miraculous remedy to eliminate craving, confusion. We have suffered because of good and bad colors, because of bad voices, because of the sweet, bitter taste, because of things we like, pleasant. We now take the pill of "impermanent teachings", to eliminate craving and to proceed to the peace of mind.

Knowing impermanence, people can remain calm in the face of sudden changes and may be cold in the middle of a sexual separation. Knowing impermanence, people dare to sacrifice their assets and lives to work. Knowing impermanence, people are fed up with temporary pleasures, deceit, and insight in the search for genuine pleasures. Because in fact, the true joy is often, the true nature is still there, but it lies within the temporary, impermanent false class of this world, so we cannot see it. When we have resolutely dismissed that false shell, of course the true value, the righteous happiness, the clear, sure Buddha will forever appear. END=NAM MO SHAKYAMUNI BUDDHA.( 3 TIMES ).WORLD VIETNAMESE BUDDHIST ORDER=GOLDEN AMITABHA MONASTERY=VIETNAMESE BUDDHIST NUN=THICH CHAN TANH.AUSTRALIA,SYDNEY.24/8/2019.