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1 " How keen everyone is to make this world their home forgetting its impermanence It's like trying to see and name constellations in a fireworks display. "
― Nadeem Aslam , The Wasted Vigil
2 " When you truly embrace your human impermanence you connect with the power you have, and influence you have, over the time you have. "
― Steve Maraboli , Life, the Truth, and Being Free
3 " Buddhist teachings discourage us from clinging and grasping to those we hold dear, and from trying to control the people or the relationship. What’s more, we’re encouraged to accept the impermanence of all things: the flower that blooms today will be gone tomorrow, the objects we possess will break or fade or lose their utility, our relationships will change, life will end. "
― Sharon Salzberg , Real Love: The Art of Mindful Connection
4 " The truest art I would strive for in any work would be to give the page the same qualities as earth: weather would land on it harshly, light would elucidate the most difficult truths; wind would sweep away obtuse padding. Finally, the lessons of impermanence taught me this: loss constitutes an odd kind of fullness; despair empties out into an unquenchable appetite for life. "
― Gretel Ehrlich , The Solace of Open Spaces
5 " Always listen to your HEART. The wisdom of your heart is the connection to your authentic power — the true home of your spirit. Quieten your inner critic, and be still... In serenity you see and feel this power. The most essential dimension within us. The essence of who we really are. To tap in and connect to this SACRED place, it brings you to a conscious of the impermanence and divine essence of everything you truly are. Knowing yourself deeply, is to be rooted in Being. A sense of JOY. Tap in to your heart, and listen. Its higher consciousness will whisper to you intuitively. "
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6 " Most days, I’ve got this impermanence thing down just great. It doesn’t bother me; what’s to bother? Most days, I sit comfortably with the knowledge that I’ll die alone, and I feel nothing so strongly as my embrace of my nothingness. Most days don’t really matter, because there is only this day, and right now I feel like fear is all I am. I don’t want you to leave. Just let me pretend you won’t.'He wrapped his arms around me and we slept. For that night, we would last forever. "
― Agnostic Zetetic
7 " Each of us is impermanent wave of energy folded into the infinite cosmic order. Acknowledgement of the fundamental impermanence of ourselves unchains us from the strictures of living a terrestrial life stuck like a needle vacillating between the magnetic pull of endless desire and the terror of death. Once we achieve freedom from any craving and all desires and we are relieved of all titanic fears, we release ourselves from living in perpetual distress. Once we rid ourselves from any impulse to exist, we discover our true place in the universal order. The composition of our life filament is exactly right when we accept the notion of living and dying with equal stoicism. "
― , Dead Toad Scrolls
8 " Writing and other efforts to produce an enduring piece of artwork is a gallant response to the prospect of death. Every person knows that they must die, and consequently people build elaborate symbolic defenses mechanism to shield themselves from knowledge of their impermanence. Every person possesses autonomy of the will, the ability to choose how to conduct their life. The freedom to act towards objects is ultimately useless; it provides a person with no sense of meaning and supplies no purpose to life because a mere collection of objects will not transcend their physical demise. An artist does not deny their impermanence but embraces the prospect of their death by laboring to create a monument of their existence that will survive their expiry. "
9 " This … perception of impermanence … gives rise to the knowledge that even those things which seem most intimate to us – such as our emotions – are transient states which come and go. … From … detached observation it … becomes clear that even one's conscious mind is but a process like everything else. Most people regard their mental life as their true inner essence ( … ), but insight meditation discloses that the stream of consciousness is just one more facet of the complex interaction of the five factors of individuality, and not what one 'really is'. "
10 " Meditation is a vehicle for opening to the truth of this impermanence on deeper and deeper levels. "
― Joseph Goldstein , Seeking the Heart of Wisdom: The Path of Insight Meditation
11 " The lessons of impermanence taught me this: loss constitutes an odd kind of fullness "
12 " The dimension of space and time, represented by what is transpiring in the here and now, is all that we will ever know. Unlike the continuum of perpetual time and infinite space, everything that we know will experience disruption, dissolution, disintegration, dismemberment, and death. The inevitability of our ending represents the tragic comedy of life. Much of our needless suffering emanates from resisting our impermanence rather than embracing our fate. Only through acceptance of the events and situations that occur in a person’s life including suffering, and by releasing our attachments, will a person ever experience enlightenment. "
13 " Final authority in the spiritual world does not tend to come from any kind of agenda success but from some kind of suffering. Insecurity and impermanence are the best spiritual teachers. "
― Richard Rohr , Adam's Return: The Five Promises of Male Initiation
14 " Gotama's awakening involved a radical shift of perspective rather than the gaining of privileged knowledge into some higher truth. He did not use the words " know" and " truth" to describe it. He spoke only of waking up to a contingent ground--" this-conditionality, conditioned arising" --that until then had been obscured by his attachment to a fixed position. While such an awakening is bound to lead to a reconsideration of what one " knows," the awakening itself is not primarily a cognitive act. It is an existential readjustment, a seismic shift in the core of oneself and one's relation to others and the world. Rather than providing Gotama with a set of ready-made answers to life's big questions, it allowed him to respond to those questions from an entirely new perspective.To live on this shifting ground, one first needs to stop obsessing about what has happened before and what might happen later. One needs to be more vitally conscious of what is happening now. This is not to deny the reality of past and future. It is about embarking on a new relationship with the impermanence and temporality of life. Instead of hankering after the past and speculating about the future, one sees the present as the fruit of what has been and the germ of what will be. Gotama did not encourage withdrawal to a timeless, mystical now, but an unflinching encounter with the contingent world as it unravels moment to moment. "
15 " One must be deeply aware of the impermanence of the world. "
― Dōgen , Shobogenzo: Zen Essays by Dogen
16 " By identifying impermanence as a fundamental characteristic of existence itself, rather than a problem to be solved, the Buddhists are encouraging us to let go our hold on illusory solidity and learn to swim freely in the sea of change. "
― , Unlimiting Mind: The Radically Experiential Psychology of Buddhism
17 " The Buddha's original teaching is essentially a matter of four points -- the Four Noble Truths:1. Anguish is everywhere.2. We desire permanent existence of ourselves and for our loved ones, and we desire to prove ourselves independent of others and superior to them. These desires conflict with the way things are: nothing abides, and everything and everyone depends upon everything and everyone else. This conflict causes our anguish, and we project this anguish on those we meet.3. Release from anguish comes with the personal acknowledgment and resolve: we are here together very briefly, so let us accept reality fully and take care of one another while we can.4. This acknowledgement and resolve are realized by following the Eightfold Path: Right Views, Right Thinking, Right Speech, Right Conduct, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Recollection, and Right Meditation. Here " Right" means " correct" or " accurate" -- in keeping with the reality of impermanence and interdependence. "
18 " Impermanence and selflessness are not negative aspect of life, but the very foundation on which life is built. Impermanence is the constant transformation of things. Without impermanence, there can be no life. Selflessness is the interdependent nature of all things. Without interdependence, nothing could exist. "
― Thich Nhat Hanh , Your True Home: The Everyday Wisdom of Thich Nhat Hanh: 365 days of practical, powerful teachings from the beloved Zen teacher
19 " If you could understand impermanence deeply, you would develop more equanimity. You would not get too excited about either the ups and downs of life. "
― Satya Nadella , Hit Refresh: The Quest to Rediscover Microsoft's Soul and Imagine a Better Future for Everyone
20 " A principled life begins by accepting the evident truth that we must die. Death becomes us. Knowledge of the impermanence of our existence reassures us that how we live does make a difference. Because our allotted time for living is finite, we must make the most of each day. "
