Impermanence

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nrose619
Posts: 41
Joined: Wed Nov 28, 2012 10:32 pm

Impermanence

Post by nrose619 »

I understand that everything has a dependent arising but what about the impermanence of life? If someone is handicapped from birth mentally or physically isn't that limiting factor permanent?
"A silver bird
flies over the autumn lake.
When it has passed,
the lake's surface does not try
to hold on to the image of the bird."
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Sam Vara
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Re: Impermanence

Post by Sam Vara »

nrose619 wrote:I understand that everything has a dependent arising but what about the impermanence of life? If someone is handicapped from birth mentally or physically isn't that limiting factor permanent?
No, it will end when the life of the person ends. More importantly, it is only a "limiting factor" for as long as somebody is insisting that the disabled person should be able to do something that they can't. The same as if someone expects me to run 100 metres in 10 seconds. I'm only "limited" by their expectations. When people treat us with love and tolerance, there are no limitations.
santa100
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Joined: Fri Jun 10, 2011 10:55 pm

Re: Impermanence

Post by santa100 »

Impermanence (anicca) is one of the three marks of existence, and it applies to the whole time dimension from a blink of an eye to many billions of billions of years. For example, a fellow soldier who was chatting with you a moment ago could get killed by a bullet from enemy's fire a split second later. The gods (devas) of the heavenly worlds can enjoy their happy life that lasts for thousands of millions of years. While the difference is huge, they all share the same truth of anicca: whatever is subject to origination is subject to cessation. Only Nibbana, the un-conditioned is beyond the reach of anicca.
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nrose619
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Re: Impermanence

Post by nrose619 »

Sam Vara my choice of language was ignorant, your response was very insightful :anjali:
"A silver bird
flies over the autumn lake.
When it has passed,
the lake's surface does not try
to hold on to the image of the bird."
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