Learning Impermanence, We See Original Nature

When we study Buddhism, we sometimes meet teachings that sound opposite to one another. On one side, we hear that all things change, that clinging brings suffering, and that there is no fixed self. On another side, we hear that every being has Buddha nature, and that the virtues of nirvana are permanence, joy, true self, and purity. Heard only on the surface, these can feel as if they collide.

But these two teachings illuminate the same place from different directions. The study of impermanence, suffering, and non-self cuts the habit of clinging to phenomena. Body, feeling, relationships, and thoughts continue to change. When we hold what changes as if it were eternally mine, the mind is soon bound by suffering. So first we must see what changes as changing.

This study is like bitter medicine. Medicine is bitter, but it is needed to heal illness. While illness remains, we may need to pause what we want to eat and wait for the medicine to do its work. In the same way, when the poison of clinging remains in the mind, the teaching, "this too changes; this too cannot be held," may at first taste bitter. Yet the teaching does not deny life. It is a skillful means that heals the illness of clinging.

When clinging loosens little by little, another place becomes visible. This does not mean that phenomena are permanent. It means that when we do not cling to changing phenomena, the wisdom that knows change becomes clear, and the originally clear nature appears. Buddha nature is not a hard self that I possess. It is the possibility of awakening that can appear in anyone when clinging clears away.

So the three marks and the teaching of Buddha nature are not fighting with each other. The three marks heal the grasping mind, and Buddha nature shows the bright place toward which that healing points. When we truly learn impermanence, we do not become nihilistic. We become more deeply free. When we release what needs to be released, the brightness that was already present becomes a little clearer.