Joyful Impermanence

  Can there be a joy in impermanence? For instance, if we are trying to achieve a goal and we are aware that this goal is fragile and can easily be thwarted by any number of events, then can this not be a cause of sorrow? Many people wonder about this. They suggest that because everything is impermanent, then there is no sense in tackling "large goals" if they cannot be totally achieved. This comes from a long tradition of tragedy which pits the main protagonist against a set of unseen forces, all of which conspire to topple this main character's aspirations and dreams. According to this view, either we completely reach the summit and consummation of our goal, or we don't bother to embark on the journey at all. After all, wouldn't the failure to reach the summit not constitute a poignant reminder that we are not in control of our lives at all?

   I like to think of goals in terms of Master Sheng Yen's concept of "making vows".  When we make a vow, we choose to think of the goal as a journey with many obstacles and lessons along the way. The goal is not to achieve "something" but rather to lose things, such as a strongly entrenched sense of a self that is always singular and has the same characteristics or qualities over time. With vows, we decide that we are not going to come out of the journey as the same person as how we came into it. So we are willing to be more flexible in terms of what we think is supposed to happen in the end. 

    I also like to think in terms of sub-goals. Because most things take a long time to obtain, we have to have the attitude that we will live with the goal for a long time, so we might as well make ourselves enjoy the journey. Goals can always be split into smaller and smaller parts, so that the load is more manageable and we can continue to live and function in the world. While doing my PhD, I was able to break down my assignments into smaller tasks, so that I wasn't putting things of at the last minute.

  Finally, impermanence is a part of life: we don't need to make huge leaps in life to see and enjoy impermanence. Impermanence is what is happening in this moment. We don't need to assign ourselves anything that's too overwhelming. It's best to take every day one small step at a time and see how we respond, rather than busying our minds with all the scenarios of things that can go wrong in the future.