What is born will die, What has been gathered will be dispersed, What has been accumulated will be exhausted, What has been built up will collapse, And what has been high will be brought low.
Interpretation
Everything in existence is transient and subject to change, emphasizing the impermanence of life and achievements.
This quote by Sogyal Rinpoche reflects the Buddhist understanding of impermanence, asserting that all things, whether they are life, material possessions, or personal achievements, are temporary and will eventually change or cease to exist. It serves as a reminder to appreciate the present and to let go of attachments, recognizing that the cycle of birth and destruction is a natural part of life.
In practice
In a motivational speech to inspire people to embrace change.
Sit, then, as if you were a mountain, with all the unshakeable, steadfast majesty of a mountain. A mountain is completely natural and at ease with itself, however strong the winds that try to bother it, however thick the dark clouds that swirl around its peak. Sitting like a mountain, let your mind rise and fly and soar
Real devotion is an unbroken receptivity to the truth. Real devotion is rooted in an awed and reverent gratitude, but one that is lucid, grounded, and intelligent.
There would be no chance at all of getting to know death if it happened only once. But fortunately, life is nothing but a continuing dance of birth and death, a dance of change. Every time I hear the rush of a mountain stream, or the waves crashing on the shore, or my own heartbeat, I hear the sound of impermanence. These changes, these small deaths, are our living links with death. They are death's pulses, death's heartbeat, prompting us to let go of all the things we cling to.
{While meditating} I sit quietly and rest in the nature of mind; I don't question or doubt whether I am in the "correct" state or not. There is no effort, only rich understanding, wakefulness, and unshakable certainty. When I am in the nature of mind, the ordinary mind is no longer there. There is no need to sustain or confirm a sense of being: I simply am.
We may idealize freedom, but when it comes to our habits, we are completely enslaved.
Death is a vast mystery, but there are two things we can say about it: It is absolutely certain that we will die, and it is uncertain when or how we will die. The only surety we have, then, is this uncertainty about the hour of our death, which we seize on as the excuse to postpone facing death directly. We are like children who cover their eyes in a game of hide and seek and think that no one can see them.
Things were going very fast now. Too fast to suit him. Fantasy and reality had merged.
And therefore in geometry (which is the only science that it hath pleased God hitherto to bestow on mankind), men begin at settling the significations of their words; which settling of significations, they call definitions, and place them in the beginning of their reckoning.
It is the nature of all greatness not to be exact.
We only dream of images we already have inside of us.
Chaos is found in greatest abundance wherever order is being sought. It always defeats order, because it is better organized.
Silence is ever speaking; it is the perennial flow of language.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.