Dhamma
A Teaching by Thich Nhat Hanh
CALLIGRAPHY BY BARBARA BASH
58
S HAMBHALA S UN
SEPTEMBER 2007
T
of truth, conventional truth and absolute truth, but they are not opposites. They are part of a continuum. There is a classic Buddhist gatha:
H E R E A R E T WO K I N D S
All formations are impermanent. They are subject to birth and death. But remove the notions of birth and death, and this silence is called great joy.
This beautiful poem has only twenty-six words, but it sums up all of the Buddha’s teaching. It is one of the great-
est poems of humanity. If you are a composer, please put it to music and make it into a song. The last two lines should sound like thundering silence, the silencing of all speculation, of all philosophies, of all notions and ideas. The gatha begins in the realm of conventional truth and ends in the realm of absolute truth. The first line describes reality as we usually perceive it. “All formations are impermanent.” This is something concrete that we notice as soon as we start paying attention. The five elements that make up our sense of personhood—form, feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness—all are flowing and changing day
S HAMBHALA S UN
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and night. We can feel their impermanence and so we are tempted to say that the first two lines of this gatha are true. But the danger of this statement is that we may believe that formations are real and impermanence is an absolute truth. And we may use that kind of truth as a weapon in order to fight against those who don’t agree with our ideas. “Formations” is a notion, an idea. “Impermanence” is another notion. Neither is more true than the other. When you say, “All formations are impermanent,” you are indirectly confirming their permanence. When you confirm the existence of something, you are also implying the existence of its opposite. When you say the right exists, you have to accept the existence of the left. When you confirm that
CALLIGRAPHY BY BARBARA BASH
58
S HAMBHALA S UN
SEPTEMBER 2007
T
of truth, conventional truth and absolute truth, but they are not opposites. They are part of a continuum. There is a classic Buddhist gatha:
H E R E A R E T WO K I N D S
All formations are impermanent. They are subject to birth and death. But remove the notions of birth and death, and this silence is called great joy.
This beautiful poem has only twenty-six words, but it sums up all of the Buddha’s teaching. It is one of the great-
est poems of humanity. If you are a composer, please put it to music and make it into a song. The last two lines should sound like thundering silence, the silencing of all speculation, of all philosophies, of all notions and ideas. The gatha begins in the realm of conventional truth and ends in the realm of absolute truth. The first line describes reality as we usually perceive it. “All formations are impermanent.” This is something concrete that we notice as soon as we start paying attention. The five elements that make up our sense of personhood—form, feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness—all are flowing and changing day
S HAMBHALA S UN
SEPTEMBER 2007 59
and night. We can feel their impermanence and so we are tempted to say that the first two lines of this gatha are true. But the danger of this statement is that we may believe that formations are real and impermanence is an absolute truth. And we may use that kind of truth as a weapon in order to fight against those who don’t agree with our ideas. “Formations” is a notion, an idea. “Impermanence” is another notion. Neither is more true than the other. When you say, “All formations are impermanent,” you are indirectly confirming their permanence. When you confirm the existence of something, you are also implying the existence of its opposite. When you say the right exists, you have to accept the existence of the left. When you confirm that