Most people, if they give any thought to impermanence, have a negative view of it. Why do good times have to end? Why do loved ones have to go? Why must health and youth fade? What we do not contemplate is that –were it not for impermanence– we’d be stuck forever in old problems, with unwanted company, and never-ending negative situations. Impermanence is a blessing!

Tashi Nyima is a Buddhist monk and a practitioner of Indo-Tibetan Yoga and Ayurveda for more than thirty years. He is the director of the New Jonang Buddhist Community in Dallas, Texas and a spokesperson for Dharma Voices for Animals.