Impermanence and Dzogchen
First mind training.
“According to Buddhist teachings, every being is a composite of mind and body. Our mind is who we are. Our body is a precious but temporary abode where our mind lives and functions as long as we are alive. As soon as we die, our mind, or consciousness, leaves our body and takes rebirth. Whether this rebirth is happy or painful depends solely on whether the effects of our past karmic deeds are positive or negative. The important point is that if we train our mind on the path of profound teachings, such as Dzogchen, our mind will become free from emotional flames and karmic bondage and will awaken to its innate wisdom”.
-Steps to the Great Perfection: The Mind-Training Tradition of the Dzogchen Masters by Jigme Lingpa.
The first of the 7 mind training of Dzogchen is impermanence. By impermanence, we imply the constantly changing nature of things. Every single compounded entity around is changing.
When we finally realize that everything is impermanent, our mental attachments, expectations, and aversions fade away.
Read the following sentences and contemplate (meditate) on the impermanence for 10-20 minutes.
Contemplating in this way will help you to see that all phenomena are impermanent by their nature. Seeing them as examples of impermanence will help your mind become more focused. The purpose of meditating this way is to turn your mind away from samsara.
The four seasons come and go. Day and night come and go as well, changing moment by moment. Unit body is changing day by day. You will die one day, as every signee one of us. On a secret level, your parents and loved ones are impermanent and will die. Don’t be scared. You have to embrace the constantly changing nature of things.
Everything is impermanent, it is. A good thing. You have the ability to change your life and life of others. Nothing is permanent.
The Buddha said, “Oh, Bhikshu, every moment you are born, decay, and die.” He meant that in every moment, the illusion of "me" renews itself. Not only is nothing carried over from one life to the next; nothing is carried over from one moment to the next. This is not to say that "we" do not exist--but that there is no permanent, unchanging "me," but rather that we are redefined in every moment by shifting impermanent conditions. Suffering and dissatisfaction occur when we cling to the desire for an unchanging and permanent self that is impossible and illusory. And release from that suffering requires no longer clinging to the illusion.