‘Everything ends. In a curious way it is what makes life so beautiful. I knew an artist once, who could craft flowers from glass – fabulous items. But one night, as we were drinking in a small tavern, he told me he had never once fashioned anything with the beauty of a genuine rose. And he knew he never would. For the secret of its beauty is that it must die.‘
– Angel, to Miriel, Waylander II: In the Realm of the Wolf
I feel this piece of Gemmel wisdom right in my heart: pain and beauty together. However painful impermanence is, it can somehow wake us up more fully to the beauty of our life.
I was reminded of the piece below from Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, a Zen monk who lived for many years, and died, in America. It’s one of my favourite quotations. (‘Buddha nature’ is code for that awareness in us that somehow miraculously takes us to another truth within the world of change and loss).
“To live in the realm of Buddha nature means to die as a small being moment after moment. When we lose our balance we die, but at the same time we also develop ourselves, we grow. Whatever we see is changing, losing its balance. The reason everything looks beautiful is because it is out of balance, but its background is always in perfect harmony. This is how everything exists in the realm of Buddha nature, losing its balance against a background of perfect balance. So if you see things without realizing the background of Buddha nature, everything appears to be in the form of suffering. But if you understand the background of existence, you realize that suffering itself is how we live, and how we extend our life.”