A Day to Learn Impermanence by Looking at Flowers
April 6 - A Day to Learn Impermanence by Looking at Flowers
When spring comes, flowers bloom and the world becomes even more beautiful. People rejoice as they look at flowers, and they offer flowers to the Buddha while making the aspiration that their own lives may also be beautiful and fragrant like flowers.
But flowers do not teach only beauty. A flower blooms, does not stay, and in the end falls. When wind and rain come, it may fall even sooner. Through this sight, nature shows us the principle that nothing in the world remains forever.
Life is also like this. There are good times, and although things seem to stay, they do not. Connections also come when the time is right and grow distant when the time has come. Just as bees and butterflies visit when flowers bloom, many connections may gather when life is going well. But after the flowers fall, that place also changes. Therefore, there is no need to cling to the connections that come, and no need to suffer by holding only to the connections that leave.
What matters is how we live this present moment. We need a life that does not become carried away in beautiful times, does not collapse easily in difficult times, and practices sincerely in every moment. When we look at nature, we should not merely enjoy the season; we should also be able to learn the teaching held within it.
Today, as we look at flowers that bloom and fall, may we learn impermanence, not cling to connections that come and go, and live this present moment fully.
Flowers bloom beautifully, but they do not stay long and eventually fall. Our lives and relationships are the same; we cannot simply hold on to what comes and goes. Therefore, with sincerity rather than attachment, and wakefulness rather than regret, we should live this moment fully. Today, may we learn impermanence from the teaching of nature.
