Ancient Parables of Impermanence
For the Buddha, impermanence was one of the three fundamental marks of existence, the other two being suffering and the non-self. Nothing exists forever, everything will die eventually. We suffer because we crave permanence to our world and our fleeting time in it. Hence the First Noble Truth of Buddhism: The world overflows with suffering.
According to the Buddha, to remove suffering, we need to get rid of this thirst for permanence. Nowhere is this insight imparted more beautifully than in the parable of the mustard seed. It is one of the world’s great parables, rivalling the parables of Christ and Plato’s famous parable of the cave for the simplicity of its wisdom.
Once long ago when the Buddha was alive and preaching the Dharma, a woman named Kisa Gotami brought her dead son to him. He was her only child and had died very young. Refusing to accept his death, she had gone door to door, seeking a cure that would revive him. Feeling pity for her, someone had suggested she meet the Enlightened One, who was visiting a nearby village.
And so here she was, weeping and begging the Buddha to revive her child, since the Holy One had attained enlightenment and knew how to work miracles. The Buddha, seeking to help her through her suffering, placed a mustard seed in her hand. He promised to revive her son if she came back empty handed after giving the mustard seed to a household in the nearby village. There was only one condition – she had to give the seed to someone who had not faced a death in the family.
Kisa Gotami went from door to door, seeking a household that met the Buddha’s condition. But every family had suffered the loss of a beloved husband or wife, a child or a parent, or a sibling. Death had left its mark everywhere. At the end, the mother realized the futility of her quest, buried her son in a nearby forest, and returned to the Buddha as his disciple. It is a simple story, but profound in the lesson it is trying to teach us. All around we see evidence of death and decay, but our hearts and minds cling to permanence, especially of our loved ones and ourselves.
In an even more ancient story told in the Mahabharata, the five Pandava brothers (who are the heroes of the epic) venture into a forest one day in pursuit of a deer. While the eldest, Yudhisthira, lies down to rest, the other brothers explore the forest in turn. One by one, they search the forest in vain for the deer. Thirsty and tired, they each come across a beautiful lake and see a heron nearby. The heron tells them they can drink from the lake only after they have answered some questions. So great is their thirst that each of them disregards the heron and begins to drink greedily from the lake. Each falls unconscious, for the heron is the presiding spirit (Yaksha) of the lake.
Meanwhile, Yudhisthira awakens and sets out in search of his brothers. He too finds the lake and is accosted by the heron. He sees his brothers stretched unconscious near the lake and realizes that this is no ordinary heron. He proceeds to answer satisfactorily the many questions posed by the Yaksha. The brothers are revived from their deathly stupor and the Yaksha turns out to be the Lord of Death (Yama) and father to Yudhisthira himself. Like many other stories in the Mahabharata, this episode is about a test of human wisdom.
One of the Yaksha’s questions is relevant to us here. He asked, “O king, what is the greatest wonder in this world?” Yudhisthira replied, “Innumerable people die everyday. Yet the living wish to live forever. This indeed is the greatest wonder.” Until such time that science and Silicon Valley enable us to live forever, the wisdom of Yama and the Buddha will continue to be relevant.