We were in the midst of second period when it happened: my teacher became so fed up with my chatter that he kicked me out of Spanish class and forced me to stand in the hallway with hopes of the dean being near. Luckily, that did not happen, but still I chuckled to myself when I asked, ‘how drunk was the guy when he flew a plane into a New York City building.’ Our teacher had just stopped the lesson and turned on the television to the exact same image on every single station.
My chuckles began to go away until they completely turned into concern when a second plane hit the second Twin Tower. The shock and grief that overcame our class transitioned into a disconnected nation in search of an answer.
Ten years later and everyone still remembers exactly where they were when the tragedy happened.
Ten years later, but what can we learn from it?
According to one of the essential doctrines of existence in Buddhism, impermanence is something that constantly comes to mind when I think of such life-changing events. But the question remains, ‘why only life-changing events?’ Why do we recognize everything we had when it is no longer ours? Why do we choose not to live for the moment?
Impermanence is an undeniable and inescapable fact of human existence from which nothing that belongs to this earth is ever free and internal.
“According to the teachings of the Buddha, life is comparable to a river. It is a progressive moment, a successive series of different moments, joining together to give the impression of one continuous flow. It moves from cause to cause, effect to effect, one point to another, one state of existence to another, giving an outward impression that it is one continuous and unified movement, where as in reality it is not. The river of yesterday is not the same as the river of today. The river of this moment is not going to be the same as the river of the next moment.
So does life.
It changes continuously and becomes something or the other from moment to moment.”
September 11, 2001 is a date that will be forever ingrained into America’s heart and should teach us the important lesson that nothing lasts forever.
Today, I not only encourage you to take the time out to think about 9/11, but also the last ten years of your life.
What you dreamed for yourself ten years ago, how close today are you to what you envisioned?
One Life, You Decide™
