Episode 4, 4 December 2014, Everything Must Change

Intro Welcome to Buddhism Guide’s Audio blog

A contemporary look at Gautama Buddha’s Teachings, from Karma Yeshe Rabgye.

Find out more, at http://www.buddhismguide.org

A transcript of this episode is available at http://www.buddhismguide.org/audio-blog-archive/audio-blog-transcripts/episode-4-transcript-everything-must-change

This Episode: Everything Must Change [00:17]

1. Unawareness [00:21]

In the last posting I mentioned unawareness.

So, what are the things we are unaware of?

Usually, in Buddhism they talk about three main things, namely:

Suffering,

Non-Self, and

Impermanence.

I've covered Suffering in the post entitled "Gautama Buddha's First Truth" and Non-Self was covered in the post "How We Experience The World".

So I'll talk about the third one here:

2. Impermanence [00:52]

3. The First Seal: All compounded things are impermanent. [01:40]

In Tibetan Buddhism there are four seals, and the first seal is:

All compounded things are impermanent.

4. The importance of understanding impermanence. [03:35]

It means we will achieve freedom from fear, freedom from suffering, and freedom from panic.

Because when we know things are not going to last, we are free from any fear, agony or pain of losing something or someone.

Impermanence is not only true for pleasurable things but for painful things as well.

In Thirty Seven Practices of all Bodhisattvas, it states:

Like the dew, that remains for a moment or two, on the tips of the grass and then melts with the dawn, the pleasure we find in the course of our lives lasts only an instant. They cannot endure.

Outro [05:43]

You can find more information about this subject in Karma Yeshe Rabgye’s books at http://www.buddhismguide.org/books/

The best way to catch a snake – A Practical Guide to the Buddha’s Teachings;

Life’s meandering path – A Secular Approach to Gautama Buddha’s Guide to Living;

Ripples in the stream – A Pragmatic Journey Through Gautama Buddha’s Teachings.

They’re available now, from Amazon and Kindle.

Thank you for listening, and I hope you enjoyed this blog post.