My very dear, precious, kind, wish-fulfilling one,
Thank you very much your kind email some time ago. This time I want to share some quotations with you, so that you can understand more clearly now.

It is said in the teachings [from The Thirty-Seven Practices of the Bodhisattva, v. 9]:

The happiness of the three existences (samsara)^*
Is like the water dew on the grass: it is in the nature of phenomena; it perishes momentarily.
That which never changes is the sublime state of liberation.
Seeking this is the bodhisattva’s practice.

What this verse is saying is that in the desire realm, form realm and formless realm (i.e. samsara), the happiness there is temporary, not ultimate, not everlasting. Why temporary? Because it is in the nature of suffering: the suffering of pain, suffering of change and pervasive compounded suffering—the suffering of pain and change arise from pervasive compounded suffering. This happiness doesn’t last. The example here is “water dew on the grass.” It can drop down anytime. It can disappear at any moment.

We have to realize that. Otherwise, if we don’t realize the nature of impermanence, then the concepts believing in true happiness and permanence cheat us, cheat our life. That attachment to the wrong concept doesn’t allow us to achieve liberation from samsara: everlasting happiness. Instead, we’re always hallucinating and then always suffer in samsara.

Please recognize what Buddha has taught in the Dhammapada:

The end of all the collections is finished, the end of rising up is falling down (even a mountain has to fall down, and the highest towers in the world at the end disintegrate),
The end of meeting is separation,
The end of living is death.

Then, from the Dhammapada [v. 182]:

This human body is extremely difficult to achieve.
For those who are definitely dying, so difficult to be alive,
(Even more so,)it is difficult to hear the holy Dharma (because it’s so difficult for Buddha to descend to the world).

Also it is said, perhaps by Milarepa:

The connection of relationships – one always wants company without separation,
But it is definite one will be separated.

Even desiring to abide always in this comfortable bedding without separation,
But it is definite one will leave from here.

Even desiring to enjoy always the enjoyment of happiness/pleasure without separation,
But it is definite one will lose it.

This is my advice for you to not forget in your daily life and normal-life mindfulness meditation.

With much love and prayers,

Lama Zopa

^* Note: the words in parentheses were added to the verses by Lama Zopa Rinpoche. [Return to text]