People want to rely on someone other than themselves. Some disciples of mine have a strong dependency on me, so as to say, “Shifu, you have to take care of your health. How can we rely on you if you're not around?" Here I am thinking to myself, "I can't even rely on myself, and along come you folks who want to rely on Me." (Laughter) So I tell them to rely not on me but on the Dharma, because it is the Dharma that I myself rely on. I'm here today but I may die tomorrow so I encourage all of you to also rely on the Dharma, to be centered in the Dharma.

Suffering of Change

The second aspect of suffering is the suffering of change. The dominant feature of existence is constant flux. The Chinese Book of Change, the I-jing, says that all things are constantly in the state of becoming. By contrast Buddhism says that things arise and perish simultaneously--in the very midst of birth there is both creation and extinction. It is not that after birth the process of dying begins, but that in the very midst of being born there is death. In the midst of creation there is extinction; in the midst of extinction there is birth. The only constant is change--impermanence.

We can view impermanence in ways that correspond with the three aspects of suffering. First is impermanence with respect to the individual's direct experience of birth, living, and death. Second is impermanence with respect to suffering accompanied by constant change as a fact of existence. Third is impermanence with respect to the conditioned arising and extinction of all phenomena. If we can understand these dimensions of impermanence in suffering, we can also recognize the truth of emptiness and no-self.

The Chinese character hua means 'suffering of change' but also has the nuance of 'destructible.' Something here today may not be around tomorrow. This is so even with the working of our minds from moment to moment. One thought leads to the next, thought after thought, in constant flux. This is the meaning of 'suffering of change.'