Life And Change

: BUDDHA, THE UNIVERSAL SPIRIT

A peculiar phase of life is change which appears in the form of

growth and decay. Nobody can deny the transitoriness of life. One

of our friends humorously observed: Everything in the world may be

doubtful to you, but it can never be doubted that you will die.

Life is like a burning lamp. Every minute its flame dies out and is

renewed. Life is like a running stream. Every moment it pushes

onward. If there be anyt
ing constant in this world of change, it

should be change itself. Is it not just one step from rosy childhood

to snowy age? Is it not just one moment from the nuptial song to the

funeral-dirge? Who can live the same moment twice?

In comparison with an organism, inorganic matter appears to be

constant and changeless; but, in fact, it is equally subjected to

ceaseless alteration. Every morning, looking into the mirror, you

will find your visage reflected in it just as it was on the preceding

day; so also every morning, looking at the sun and the earth, you

will find them reflected in your retina just as they were on the

previous morning; but the sun and the earth are no less changeless

than you. Why do the sun and the earth seem changeless and constant

to you? Only because you yourself undergo change more quickly than

they. When you look at the clouds sweeping across the face of the

moon, they seem to be at rest, and the moon in rapid motion; but, in

fact, the clouds, as well as the moon, incessantly move on.



Science might maintain the quantitative constancy of matter, but the

so-called matter is mere abstraction. To say matter is changeless is

as much as to say 2 is always 2, changeless and constant, because the

arithmetical number is not more abstract than the physiological

matter. The moon appears standing still when you look at her only a

few moments. In like manner she seems to be free from change when

you look at her in your short span of life. Astronomers,

nevertheless, can tell you how she saw her better days, and is now in

her wrinkles and white hair.



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