Living in Impermanence: The Spiritual Enlightenment of Tibetan Buddhism to Modern People
On the Tibet Plateau at an altitude of 4,000 meters, an elderly lama is drawing a sand painting of a mandala. He uses colorful fine sand to build a complex and exquisite Buddhist world one by one. A few days later, this artwork that took countless efforts disappeared with a wave of his hand. This scene is the most profound interpretation of the essence of life in Tibetan Buddhism: everything is impermanent, and attachment is suffering.
Impermanence: The Essence of Life
Tibetan Buddhism regards impermanence as the fundamental law of the universe. The ever-changing situation on the plateau and the separation and reunion in life are all telling an eternal truth: nothing is eternal. This view of impermanence is not a negative acceptance of fate, but the most real cognition of life.
Modern people are often troubled by anxiety, and the root cause lies in the vain pursuit of eternity. We long to stay young forever, hope that our careers will always be smooth, and expect our feelings to never change. These obsessions have become the source of pain. Tibetan Buddhism tells us that only by acknowledging impermanence can we gain true freedom.
In practice, monks realize the true meaning of impermanence by visualizing the cycle of life and death. This practice is not to make people lose their enthusiasm for life, but to teach us to embrace change with a more open mind and find the power of staying in the flow.
Emptiness: Wisdom Beyond Opposition
Emptiness is one of the most profound teachings of Tibetan Buddhism. It tells us that all things in the world are the product of cause and condition, and there is no independent and unchanging self-nature. Honor and disgrace, gain and loss, success and failure, these concepts that we cling to are essentially empty.
In modern society, people often fall into a binary oppositional thinking mode: success and failure, gain and loss, happiness and pain. This oppositional thinking makes us worry about gains and losses in the ups and downs of life, and it is difficult to maintain inner peace.
Tibetan Buddhist practitioners realize the wisdom of emptiness through meditation. They understand that the ups and downs in life are like clouds on the plateau, which seem real but are actually illusory. This realization does not make people indifferent, but cultivates a transcendent wisdom that can keep the heart clear in the complicated world.
Compassion: The power to transcend the self
Tibetan Buddhism places special emphasis on the practice of compassion. This compassion is not simple sympathy, but great love based on the wisdom of emptiness. When we realize that there is no difference between ourselves and others, true compassion will naturally arise.
In modern society, people are often trapped by self-centeredness and lose their original heart in the process of pursuing personal interests. Tibetan Buddhism teaches us that true happiness comes from benefiting others and from breaking the barriers between ourselves and others.
By practicing compassion, we can transcend personal gains and losses and settle our lives in a broader dimension. This practice is not to deny the self, but to let us find the deeper meaning of life in the process of benefiting all beings.
In the temples on the Tibet Plateau, butter lamps are always lit, symbolizing the eternity of wisdom. This lamp tells us that although life is impermanent, the enlightened heart can always be bright. The wisdom of Tibetan Buddhism does not ask us to escape from reality, but teaches us how to stay in the impermanence, awaken in the emptiness, and find the true destination of life in compassion. In this era full of uncertainty, this ancient wisdom may be the compass we need most.
