Embracing Impermanence and Death

Delve into the Wisdom of Death: A Path to Enlightenment

July 12, 2023

This week’s topic: Death and Impermanence

A crucial aspect of becoming a proficient practitioner lies in the realization of death and impermanence. In this email, we are excited to share with you an array of valuable resources, including guided meditations, reading recommendations, and profound insights on the nature of impermanence.

I shall have to leave everything and depart alone

But, through failing to understand this,

I have committed many kinds of evil action

With respect to my friends and others.

And yet my friends will become nothing

And others will also become nothing.

Even I shall become nothing;

Likewise, everything will become nothing.

✸ Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life by Shantideva

We live as if we will live forever. When Buddhist teachers discuss preparing for death, fear often engulfs people! We often attempt to avoid the topic, but this is a truly foolish approach. Death is an inevitability that each one of us must confront, sooner or later.

Meditate on Death:

9-point meditation on Death
Download Here🔗 
Guided Meditation on Death
Watch Here🔗 
The Importance of Meditating on Impermanence and Death
Read the Article🔗 

Best books on Death:

📖Tibetan Book of the Dead - buy it here 🔗
📖The biography of Milarepa - buy it here 🔗
📖 Dhammapada - buy it here 🔗
📖The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying written by by Sogyal Rinpoche - buy it here 🔗
📖Making Friends with Death, Buddhist teacher Judith Lief - buy it here 🔗
📖No Death, No Fear: Comforting Wisdom for Life, by Thich Nhat Hanh - buy it here 🔗
📖Living in the Light of Death: On the Art of Being Truly Alive, by Larry Rosenberg - buy it here 🔗
📖 What the Buddha Taught (1959) by Walpola Rahula - buy it here 🔗
📖 Leaning Into Sharp Points: Practical Guidance and Nurturing Support for Caregivers, by Stan Goldberg - buy it here 🔗

What is impermanence?

  1. The first and final teaching topic of Buddha was impermanence.

  2. All conditioned things pass away; nothing remains as it was.

  3. The realization dawns upon us that everything is constantly changing, moment by moment, and nothing remains stable.

  4. Change can be both beneficial and detrimental, as even refreshing transformations always involve some form of loss. New things can only arise when old things cease.

There are 2 types of impermanence:

GROSS IMPERMANENCE

Gross impermanence refers to changes that are visible to our eyes, like when I drop this glass and it shatters, or when a plant grows from spring to summer.

SUBTLE IMPERMANENCE

Subtle impermanence, on the other hand, encompasses changes that are not perceptible to our eyes. For instance, scientists discuss the movement of electrons around a nucleus, and within all atoms and molecules, everything is in constant motion and undergoing change, even though it remains unseen. 

The present time is ungraspable. As soon as it occurs, it immediately slips into the past. As soon as I am here, I am gone.

Did you know?

A Monk in Tukdam Meditation

Tukdam meditation is one of the most advanced and profound forms of Buddhist practice. It entails holding the mind in a deep meditative state. Tukdam is a state that begins at the time of death and can continue for several weeks after the physical body dies. It represents the ultimate process of inner dissolution, where the five elements and consciousness merge into clear light

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