Understanding Impermanence

~ By Ajahn Jayasāro ~

There is a small lump of sandstone on my shrine. For fourteen centuries it was part of one of the two huge Bamiyan Buddhas in Central Afghanistan. I received the rock from a Thai lay Buddhist nearly twenty years ago. He had obtained it while visiting Bamiyan as a member of an international organization. By the time of his arrival the Buddhas had already been obliterated by the Taliban, and my piece of rock was simply rubble.

Created things may be resistant to change but they are not immune to it. Religious structures built to last for a thousand years may indeed survive the predations of nature for that long, but who can predict how they will be perceived and what they will be used for in the future? The British army used Shwedagong Pagoda in Rangoon as a fort in the mid-nineteen century. Of the Buddhist monuments in India not destroyed by members of other religions, many were re-named and appropriated by them.

Whether or not Buddhism is to survive into coming centuries will not depend on materials like sandstone, or even granite. It will depend on nurturing the flame of Dhamma within the hearts and minds of living beings. We don’t have to fight against impermanence, only understand it.

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"Food for the Heart", a series of Dhamma teachings handwritten weekly is posted on the Buddhadāsa Indapañño Archives page with Ajahn's kind permission.

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For other teachings by Ven. Ajahn Jayasāro, please visit the Panyaprateep Foundation website.