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the DAILY BUDDHIST

366 DAYS OF WISDOM FOR HAPPINESS, INNER FREEDOM AND MINDFUL LIVING

THE DAILY BUDDHIST

366 DAYS OF WISDOM

FOR HAPPINESS, INNER FREEDOM AND MINDFUL LIVING

PEMA SHERPA AND BRENDAN BARCA

RIDER

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For our daughter, Samaya, our whole heart

Those who know the essential to be essential and the unessential to be unessential, dwelling in right thoughts, do arrive at the essential.

— THE BUDDHA

PART I:

PART II: LOOKING INWARD

PART III: EXTENDING OUTWARD

PART IV: PRACTICE

Introduction

Some of us are angry. Others are anxious. Maybe you feel out of control. Disconnected from those around you. Or like your thoughts are running you. Maybe you struggle to accept change or can’t stay present. Perhaps you just have this nagging discontentment that prevents you from being at peace.

These are the all-too-common symptoms of our twenty-firstcentury world—one that’s overstimulating, highly materialistic, hyperproductive, and always connected yet extremely isolating. No matter how many vacations we take, hobbies we engage in, promotions we get, books we read, exercise routines we try, minutes we spend meditating, or how deeply we bury ourselves in our passions, we just can’t seem to crack the code to happiness.

Although the world looked very different twenty-five hundred years ago when the Buddha walked the earth, humans dealt with the same fundamental problems: They grappled with difficult emotions, resisted change, suffered from discontentment, struggled to find peace, and longed for happiness. It’s for this very reason that the Buddha—at the time known as Siddhārtha Gautama—left his life as a prince in search of a way to end his own suffering.

For years Siddhārtha wandered about searching both externally and internally for a way to free himself. Eventually, through examining his mind, peeling back its layers, and investigating his inner and outer reality, he unearthed the cause of his suﬀering and discovered a path out. One day, while meditating under the bodhi tree, he put an end to his suﬀering and achieved enlightenment. The Buddha

then spent the rest of his life traveling around the region now known as India sharing his discovery and teaching his philosophy on how to alleviate suﬀering and attain lasting happiness. These teachings evolved into Buddhism and have been passed down from generation to generation by his students and their students, continuing all the way up to today.

In the over two millennia since the Buddha’s passing, scholars, philosophers, great masters, and spiritual teachers—first in ancient India and later all over Asia—studied, pondered, questioned, debated, and expanded upon his philosophy. Among them were masters like Nāgārjuna, a second-century Indian philosopher and adviser to kings, widely regarded as one of the greatest thinkers in Asian philosophy; Śāntideva, an eighth-century scholar and philosopher who attended Nalanda University in India—a renowned center of learning in the ancient world—and authored the Buddhist classic The Bodhicaryāvatāra (A Manual to Enlightenment); eleventh-century master Milarepa, a murderer turned mystic, poet, and singer who spent most of his life living alone in caves in Tibet; and many others. And thanks to the extraordinary preservation eﬀorts of these masters and other scholars throughout history, these teachings survived through natural disasters, political upheavals, and religious conﬂicts and are available to us today. It’s these teachings, stemming from the Buddha’s quest for inner freedom, that we can use as a tool to discover our own inner freedom.

This book compiles profound teachings from dozens of renowned Buddhist masters spanning from the time of the Buddha to the modern era. For each day of the year, you’ll get an insightful quote from a Buddhist master with an accompanying commentary, story, practice, lesson, or contemplation tailored for twenty-first-century living. You’ll work on examining the nature of your mind, internalizing impermanence, cultivating awareness, remedying your negative emotions, fos-

tering a generous way of being, developing patience with yourself, and cultivating compassion for others. You’ll also spend time engaging in mindful action and making friends with yourself through meditation. By the end of the year, you’ll see the world and your mind diﬀerently, which will propel you farther along the path to true happiness.

FROM THE BUDDHA UNTIL NOW: A QUEST FOR HAPPINESS AND INNER FREEDOM

Before his enlightenment, the Buddha lived a life of extremes, first as a young, wealthy, privileged prince, then as a wandering ascetic who deprived himself of food, clothing, and other comforts in an effort to quell all his desires. However, he discovered that whether he lived a life of hedonism or asceticism, he continued to experience suffering. Having seen the flaws in both approaches, he adopted what’s now known as “the Middle Way”—a path that steers clear of extremes. It was with this new perspective that, while sitting in meditation, the Buddha was able to defeat his inner demons and achieve his great awakening, which led to the discovery of his foundational teaching— the Four Noble Truths.

The Four Noble Truths are:

1. There is suﬀering

2. There is a cause of suﬀering

3. There is an end to suﬀering

4. There is a path to end suﬀering

The First Noble Truth—there is suffering—reveals that suffering is woven into our very existence. We all experience the suffering of change (breakups, layoffs, old age, death), the suffering of suffering (twisting an ankle, getting a headache, experiencing heartache), and the suffering of conditionality (a fun vacation leads to dissatisfaction

with daily life; a promotion doesn’t give you the contentment you thought it would; finding your soulmate fails to bring you the lasting happiness you expected).

The Second Noble Truth—there is a cause of suffering—explains that suffering is caused by attachment, which stems from our fundamental ignorance or misunderstanding of reality. We suffer because we hold on to the belief that things are permanent, satisfying, and independent when they are actually impermanent, unsatisfying, and interdependent. We get hurt from breakups because we cling to the relationships, expecting them to last. We are disappointed when our higher paychecks stop giving us satisfaction. We struggle with aging because we see our bodies as solid and independent when they’re actually fluid and interdependent.

The first two Noble Truths might make life appear hopeless, but this realistic appraisal of our human experience is ultimately hopeful, as it makes way for the Third Noble Truth— the possibility of ending suffering. Since there is a cause of suffering—our ignorance of reality—it is possible to end our suffering and find happiness. We can free ourselves.

This brings us to the Fourth Noble Truth—there is a path to end suﬀering. Known as the Eightfold Path, it provides guidelines to achieve inner freedom and happiness.

The Eightfold Path is:

1. Right view

2. Right intention

3. Right speech

4. Right action

5. Right livelihood

6. Right eﬀort

7. Right mindfulness

8. Right concentration

The Eightfold Path focuses on three areas: developing wisdom ( prajña ), living ethically ( śila ), and cultivating mental discipline (samādhi ). Right view and right intention relate to developing wisdom.

Right speech, right action, and right livelihood pertain to ethical living. Right eﬀort, right mindfulness, and right concentration involve the cultivation of mental discipline.

While the Eightfold Path has the potential to transform our lives, we can realize this potential only if we embrace its principles as a way of living. And that’s where this book comes in—it oﬀers daily teachings designed to help you weave the Eightfold Path into the fabric of your life.

Though the Buddha taught only orally, his students recorded his teachings, and following his death, they spread his philosophy across India. In the centuries that followed, Buddhist philosophy expanded across Asia into areas we know today as Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, China, Japan, Korea, Bhutan, Nepal, and Tibet, and to the Middle East, to regions we now call Pakistan and Afghanistan. As Buddhist philosophy spread, it adapted to the cultural and religious contexts of each region, giving rise to various schools of thought, such as Tibetan Buddhism, Chan Buddhism, Zen Buddhism, and Theravada Buddhism. Despite the diverse forms Buddhism has assumed in diﬀerent cultural settings, the fundamental principles of the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path remain central to all. At its heart, Buddhism is one man’s philosophy that has been contemplated, practiced, and elaborated upon by countless masters, teachers, scholars, and philosophers through the centuries.

Our intention with this book is to bring the invaluable teachings from Buddhist philosophy—which can at times seem esoteric and inaccessible—to anyone looking to work on themselves, tame their mind, or feel a little freer. You don’t have to be Buddhist or have prior knowledge of Buddhism to benefit from the lessons in these pages. The only prerequisite is that you have the intention to work on yourself.

THE GAP BETWEEN MODERN-DAY MINDFULNESS AND BUDDHIST PHILOSOPHY

Over the past century, thanks to the eﬀorts of the Dalai Lama and other renowned Buddhist masters, such as Chögyam Trungpa, Thich Nhat Hanh, and Suzuki Roshi; mid-century American authors, including Alan Watts, Jack Kerouac, and Allen Ginsberg; and more recent authors, like Pema Chödrön, Sharon Salzberg, and Jon Kabat-Zinn, Buddhism has become more popular than ever in the West.

In the past few decades, Buddhism has even been evaluated by the scientific community. A series of groundbreaking studies by psychologist Richard Davidson at the University of Wisconsin–Madison revealed that, compared to non-meditators, experienced meditators exhibited heightened levels of gamma waves and significantly higher activity in the prefrontal cortex (an area of the brain associated with attention, resilience, presence, and happiness). Two of the participants in these studies, Buddhist monks Yongey Mingyur and Matthieu Ricard, had such exceptional results that each of them has, at one time or another, been dubbed “the happiest man in the world,” fueling global interest in meditation.

Due to the contributions of these individuals and many others, meditation and mindfulness—two core practices of Buddhism—have become mainstream in the twenty-first century. Meditation centers, mindfulness retreats, meditation apps, and workplace mindfulness programs are ubiquitous today. While this widespread popularity has brought many benefits, the depth and complexity of these practices and the full potential that they have to oﬀer has gotten lost along the way. For some, these practices have been reduced to just another self-care tool—a quick fix for stress or a little productivity boost. For others, they are merely aspirational—people believe they might be

helpful, but they feel too out of reach or impractical amid their busy lives.

Yet mindfulness and meditation and, in a wider context, Buddhist philosophy have so much more to oﬀer than that. What the Buddha taught to his students and the teachings that are in this book are not mere self- care, purely aspirational, or impractical—they’re essential mind-training principles you can apply to your life right here and now. The principles of Buddhist philosophy have the potential to transform every aspect of your life—they can help you gain an accurate understanding of reality, overcome emotions that keep you trapped, and expand your capacity to care for others. They provide a framework you can use to lead a great life— one in which you are more compassionate, have greater resilience, can go with the ﬂow of change, and feel lighter and more joyful. And it’s something that we can practice in the midst of our day-today lives. We don’t have to move to the country or leave our job or take a break from everything we have going on. Instead, we can continue to live our lives and use each experience as an opportunity to practice.

THE DAILY BUDDHIST: 366 DAYS OF WISDOM FOR HAPPINESS, INNER FREEDOM, AND MINDFUL LIVING

For the reader with a busy and active life, this book provides daily doses of Buddhist wisdom arranged in a bite-size format with practical action steps. Inspired by the Buddhist tradition of daily practice as well as popular daily reads of our time, this book oﬀers 366 quotes from Buddhist masters—one for each day of the year and an extra one for leap year—along with a thought-provoking reﬂection that’s accessible, digestible, practical, and modern.

Drawing from Buddhist texts spanning twenty-five hundred years, this book presents instructions from nearly forty masters from both

classical Indian Buddhism and Tibetan Buddhism. Within these pages you’ll find excerpts from Buddhist classics like The Dhammapada (a compilation of the Buddha’s most insightful teachings); the aforementioned work by Śāntideva, The Bodhicaryāvatāra; Nāgārjuna’s Letter to a Friend (advice to an ancient Indian king on how to govern wisely and live ethically); Milarepa’s Hundred Thousand Songs (a collection of spiritual songs with instructions, insights, and meditation techniques); Patrul Rinpoche’s The Words of My Perfect Teacher (a comprehensive guide to foundational Buddhist concepts and practices); and the contemporary Mindfulness in Action by Chögyam Trungpa (which teaches how to bring mindfulness into work, relationships, and daily activities). You’ll also hear from distinguished Buddhist masters like Tilopa, a highly unorthodox tantric master who emphasized direct experience above scholarly pursuits; Kamalaśīla, an Indian Buddhist scholar who was instrumental in establishing the monastic tradition in Tibet; Asaṅga, an Indian philosopher revered for his profound insights into the nature of consciousness; and Machik Lapdrön, the only woman spiritual leader to found her own Buddhist practice.

We’ve divided the book into four parts, each addressing a particular theme designed to help you explore and practice the core elements of the Eightfold Path—wisdom, ethical living, and mental discipline.

The four parts of the book are as follows:

Part I, Reflection on Life and Death: Gaining wisdom through the study of impermanence, interdependence, and the nature of mind

Part II, Looking Inward: Investigating your inner world and training your mind by fostering diligence, overcoming negative emotions, and cultivating awareness

8 · Introduction

Part III, Extending Outward: Expanding your scope of care by practicing the exchange of self and others, unconditional generosity, and compassion toward yourself and others

Part IV, Practice: Engaging in ethical living through body, speech, and mind and developing mental discipline with meditation

Each of the four parts consists of three chapters, forming twelve chapters in total, which align with the twelve months of the year. Within each chapter you’ll focus on a particular facet of the theme, and each day will introduce a new perspective or action. All the foundational principles of Buddhist philosophy are prominently featured: emptiness, impermanence, interdependence, mindfulness, meditation, vigilance, diligence, compassion, sympathetic joy, loving-kindness, equanimity, generosity, and ethics.

How you read the book is up to you. You can read it front to back or you can start with the day of the year you are currently on and work your way through along with the calendar. But before diving into your first page, we encourage you to read the introduction for whichever theme you choose to embark on first (on pages 11, 107, 205, and 303 respectively). This will provide the context to help you get the most out of your daily reads. When you read this book—in the morning, at night, or on your lunch break—is your choice. However, many readers report that reading it first thing in the morning helps them set the tone for the day and better incorporate the teachings into their daily lives.

The goal of this practical yet comprehensive approach to Buddhist philosophy is to help you find your own path to happiness. It’s our hope that this book unveils for you the wisdom of Buddhist philosophy so you can use it to live more freely and openly. With this aspiration, we welcome you to begin your journey.

PART I

Reflection on Life and Death

Imagine how much harder life would be if we didn’t accept the existence of gravity—if we constantly tried to fight it. Groceries would feel like they were resisting us; climbing stairs would become an infuriating ordeal; and dropping ice cream would be even more devastating. But we accept gravity for what it is. We don’t pretend it doesn’t exist just because it’s sometimes inconvenient, and this acceptance allows us to make peace with it.

Just like the law of gravity, other universal truths define our reality, such as the fact that everything is always changing and that every action has a corresponding consequence. While conceptually we don’t deny these truths, we struggle to internalize and embody them. When you lose a job, a relationship comes to an end, or fall turns into winter, you experience not only the pain of change but also the added suﬀering that comes from clinging to the way things were. When you fail to accept the true nature of reality, it leads to confusion and suﬀering.

This is why, for centuries, Buddhist masters have begun their journey toward enlightenment by reﬂecting on the nature of reality, examining how the world works, and observing the mind’s interpretation of it. And that’s where we’ll begin here. We’ll reﬂect on the nature of reality through the lens of life and death. In this process, we’ll seek to gain insight and wisdom into the disparity between our perception of reality versus how things really are, and we’ll see how

removing this discrepancy is the route to eliminating suﬀering and finding lasting happiness.

In the months ahead, we’ll inspect our external world through two foundational principles of Buddhist philosophy: impermanence and interdependence. We’ll contemplate the changes happening all around—the rip in your favorite pair of jeans, the signs of aging in your body, the transience of relationships, and the ﬂeeting nature of life. We’ll also reﬂect on the law of interdependence—how all things arise from causes and conditions—by investigating where emotions come from, how you acquire your taste for something, all the factors that go into producing your morning paper, and how even your smallest actions can make a big impact. We’ll then examine our internal reality by studying the nature of the mind—how your “thinking mind” traps you in fear, how your reactive emotions block your true nature from shining through, why your mind is master, and how to tap into your “wisdom mind.”

Your journey through Part I—January, February, and March—looks like this:

January: Reﬂection on Impermanence

February: Reﬂection on Interdependence

March: Reﬂection on Nature of Mind

Every day, you’ll have an opportunity to reﬂect on the true nature of your external and internal realities so that you can begin to see things not as they appear but as they really are. Are you ready to start accepting the gravity of life’s universal truths?

JANUARY

Reflection on Impermanence

JANUARY

You Are Alive. Rejoice!

To wake up in good health is an event which truly deserves to be considered miraculous, yet we take it completely for granted.

— PATRUL RINPOCHE 1

From the moment we wake up, we are consumed by thoughts of what we want and how we’re going to get it. Even in our dreams, we may catch ourselves grasping for things we have yet to obtain.

In the midst of all this striving, we completely overlook that we have already obtained the greatest gift: life. We forget the fact that there will come a day when we won’t wake up.

However, today, you did wake up. So put down this book and take a look around. Inhale deeply. Wiggle your toes. Smile to yourself. Take a moment to celebrate this stroke of luck, this unparalleled good fortune.

You are alive. Rejoice!

The Speed of Life

The Three Worlds are as impermanent as autumn clouds, Beings, dancing through birth and death are likewise. Life, passing by like a ﬂash of lightning, moves as swiftly As water cascading from a mountain top.

— MIPHAM RINPOCHE 2

Just as the seasons move swiftly from winter to spring to summer to fall, our lives move swiftly from birth to adolescence to adulthood to death.

And yet, despite this undeniable truth, we live our lives as if we’ll be around forever. We spend countless hours each day scrolling mindlessly through social media. We binge Netﬂix shows we barely like. We work eighty-hour weeks in jobs that feel meaningless.

Why do we do this? Because we think that, at some point in the future, we’ll have time to really start living.

When you take a moment to contemplate the ﬂeeting nature of your life—how the past ten years have passed in a ﬂash and how the next ten will pass just as swiftly—you create a sense of urgency to live fully now.

Time is passing. Live immediately.

JANUARY

I Once Had a Pot and Now I Don’t

This clay pot so important, the whole of my wealth, Becomes my lama* in the moment it breaks, Teaching impermanence, how amazing!

— MILAREPA

Milarepa, a renowned Tibetan yogi, lived an austere life alone in the mountains to escape the distractions of daily life. His sole possession was a pot that he used to cook his meager meals. One day, as Milarepa stepped out of his meditation cave, he slipped and dropped his pot. He watched it roll down the mountainside and shatter.

Rather than feeling devastated over the loss of his only possession, Milarepa was filled with inspiration. In that moment, he recognized the shattering of the pot as an example of the impermanence of all things.

We all have possessions that are dear to us—a favorite watch, the latest iPhone, a new car. The more value we place on the item, the more we are trapped by the fear of losing it. But like Milarepa’s pot, these items are inherently impermanent and we are bound to lose them sooner or later.

When we ignore the impermanence of our possessions, we imprison ourselves. But by recognizing the impermanence of all things we can set ourselves free.

* Lama is a Tibetan word that can be interpreted as “teacher” or “spiritual guide.”

A Sweet Flash of Memories

In a dream one person enjoys one hundred years of happiness and then awakes, while another awakes after being happy for just a moment. Surely the happiness of both ceases once they have awakened. That is what it is like at the time of death for the one who lives long and for the ones whose life is short.

— ŚĀNTIDEVA 4

Recall a happy experience from your past. What comes to mind? It might be a blissful semester abroad or that time you landed a big promotion. As you reﬂect on this experience, notice that regardless of how long it lasted, whether for one minute or one month, it is now merely a sweet ﬂash of memory.

Śāntideva, the renowned eighth-century Indian philosopher, reminds us that our lives are no diﬀerent. Whether you live for thirty, sixty, or ninety years, when your time is up, all the past decades will appear as a photo reel of experiences.

This reveals the sobering reality that your life, no matter how long or short, is composed only of the present moment.

So if the present is all there is and all that matters, how will you show up for it?

JANUARY

The Fight Against Mortality

Though the time of death is uncertain, it will come. Death is the natural property of living beings. Even those who live for 100 years die in the end.

— ĀRYADEVA 5

In 2016, American businessman James Strole established the Coalition for Radical Life Extension. Its mission: to jump-start scientific research to greatly extend human life, not just by a few years but by decades or even centuries, ultimately making death optional. Strole is not alone in his attempt to find a “cure” for human mortality; some of Silicon Valley’s wealthiest business magnates are pouring money into this fight against death.

But is the fight against mortality a fruitful one? Even though the average human lifespan has risen from below forty to above seventy in the past two centuries, no human has ever escaped death.

While it’s worthwhile to strive for a long, healthy life, we must be careful not to cling to the idea of living forever. If nature is any indication, all things come to an end. Even a star that has lived for billions of years at some point fades into oblivion.

How might your life be diﬀerent if you shift your focus from trying to live for a long time to trying to live now?

Living in Tomorrowland

Who’s sure he’ll live till tomorrow? Today’s the time to be ready, For the legions of Death Are not on our side.

— THE BUDDHA 6

Tomorrow I will call my parents. Tomorrow I will say “I love you” to my partner. Tomorrow I will be present with my child. Tomorrow I will be kind to myself.

Each day, we delay the meaningful things in life believing that tomorrow will oﬀer us a fresh chance. Fortunately for us, tomorrow has always arrived. But just because tomorrow has come every day does not mean that it will arrive again in the morning. In fact, we can say with absolute certainty that one day, tomorrow will not come.

So ask yourself: What have I been putting oﬀ until tomorrow? Who have I been meaning to call? How do I want to show up on this day?

Today you can choose to change your ways. You can choose to stop living in Tomorrowland. Take the sentence below and fill in the blank with a meaningful action that you’ve been putting oﬀ, then use today to pursue it like there is no tomorrow.

Today, I will .

JANUARY

As Solid as Drawings on Water

Your past joys and sorrows are like drawings on water: No trace of them remains. Don’t run after them! But should they come to mind, reﬂect on how success and failure come and go.

— TOKMÉ ZANGPO 7

The former high-school jock still brings up the big play in the state championship game ten years ago. The coworker still holds a grudge for getting beat out for a promotion six months prior. The friend who broke up with his girlfriend a year back refuses to move on.

We all carry our past successes and failures with us like baggage we can’t put down. We let events that happened once upon a time define us. But in reality, that moment is gone and exists only in memory. And perhaps even the memory of the event is tainted due to the passage of time.

When you find a past experience consuming your present, rather than getting swept away by the emotions it brings, simply watch it with curiosity. Notice that the incident exists only in your memory and that it’s fueled by the emotions you give it. Slowly you’ll see that past experiences are like drawings on water with no substance of their own.

The Crowd Always Disperses

Families are as ﬂeeting as a crowd on market-day; . . . Don’t bicker or ﬁght!

— PADAMPA SANGYE 8

Each weekend, your local farmers’ market bustles with vendors shouting out prices and patrons filling their bags with produce. But hours later, the market closes, the patrons disperse to their homes, and the vendors close up their stalls and drive oﬀ. By sundown, not a trace of the market or the crowd that gave it life remains.

While it may be easy for us to grasp the fleeting nature of a farmers’ market, we don’t always realize the ﬂeeting nature of our relationships. Think about your parents and siblings—they were once a prominent, daily part of your life, and now you see them only a few times a year.

Yet we disagree on petty things and hold on to resentments with parents, siblings, and partners. Why do we do this? It’s because we assume they will always be around and we can resolve our family matters in the future. But our relationships, just like the market, will eventually end. The crowd always disperses.

So today, choose to resolve any diﬀerences with your family and show compassion toward them for the time you have together.

JANUARY

You Can’t Manipulate Time

Look how quickly yesterday and today, this morning and tonight, this year and next year, all pass by one after the other.

— PATRUL RINPOCHE 9

We like to believe we can manipulate time. In the summer, we encourage time to slow down so we can hold on to those warm summer nights. In the winter, we urge the frigid dark months to pass, convincing ourselves that life and our rotten moods will be better as soon as spring blooms.

But, as we should know by now, it is futile to put any eﬀort into hurrying time along or trying to slow it down. No matter how much we tighten or loosen our grip, time passes by just the same.

So rather than trying to manipulate time to suit your whims, why not give yourself permission to sink into this moment right here?

You Must Leave It All Behind

When that time approaches O’ King, you have to go alone— Wealth, beauty, relatives and friends cannot accompany you.

— JAMYANG KHYENTSE WANGPO 10

How much of our lives do we spend clinging to that which we’re afraid to lose? We cling to our wealth as if it’ll keep us secure forever. We cling to our appearances in an eﬀort to maintain youth. We cling to our loved ones with the hope they’ll be with us always.

And yet none of these things accompany us when we die. Even a king, someone who has everything one could wish for, must leave his queen, his riches, his kingdom, and all his power behind when he dies. This doesn’t mean we should value nothing. But we can stop deluding ourselves and acknowledge that nothing we have will last forever. In the end, just like the king, we have to leave it all behind.

JANUARY

Time Flies

Our time passes like lightning in the sky; It goes quickly, lightly, swiftly, like a fast-running mountain stream.

— ŚĀNTIDEVA 11

The earth is four and a half billion years old. Dinosaurs ruled it for a whopping one hundred sixty-five million years, but they have long been extinct. It was six million years ago that early humans started walking the planet. Human civilization as we know it today formed over six thousand years ago.

Reﬂect on these astronomical numbers for a moment. Now look at your own life. Look at how quickly the decades of your life have passed already. The popular expression “Time ﬂies” captures this phenomenon well. Despite this, we tend to rush through our lives, bolting from one day to the next.

You can’t slow the pace of time. But you can slow down. Take a breath. Take your time.

Experience your now before it passes you by.

My Blue Jeans

See the full moon so bright and round, Few days later it will not be found. It proves its transient nature. Think, then to ﬁnd the law profound.

— MILAREPA 12

Change is gradually occurring all around us, yet we rarely notice it.

Wearing your favorite pair of blue jeans day after day, you don’t detect their decline. Then one day you’re surprised to find a rip.

Like your jeans, nature is not a solid entity but rather a dynamic process. If you pay attention to the phenomena occurring around you—the changing moon, the worn-out jeans, your aging skin—you will see the profound lesson of transience in them all.

JANUARY

Let Your Impermanence Guide Your Action

Think about death and impermanence for a long time. Once you are certain that you are going to die, you will no longer ﬁnd it hard to put aside harmful actions, nor diﬃcult to do what is right.

— GESHE POTOWA 13

Reﬂect on the last time you let anger, jealousy, or fear grab hold of you. Maybe in the heat of an argument you said something that deeply hurt your partner, or maybe you caught your children misbehaving and regrettably lashed out at them.

We may excuse our harmful actions on the premise that we’ll have time later to set things right. But picture an extreme scenario: What if, before you can make things right, death intervenes, and you never get the chance to make up with your partner or apologize to your children?

If we can sincerely acknowledge the truth that death is certain, we may find it easier to be kind and deliberate in our daily actions. So today, take a moment to reﬂect. Ask yourself: How might I act in each moment knowing the truth of my impermanence?

JANUARY 14

Even the Colosseum Crumbled

Whatever comes together is impermanent and is bound to come apart.

Whatever is built is impermanent and is bound to collapse.

— PATRUL RINPOCHE 14

The Roman Colosseum, the ancient world’s largest amphitheater, was completed in AD 81. At the arena’s prime, eighty thousand spectators piled into it to watch gladiator fights and animal hunts. It was the most celebrated stadium on earth. Yet today, nearly two thousand years later, the Colosseum exists only as a dilapidated ruin for tourists to marvel at.

Now consider the various physical structures and objects that are dear to you—your house, your car, your coﬀee maker. Just like the Colosseum, they will deteriorate in time.

Don’t be disheartened by this. Instead, use this reﬂection as an opportunity to loosen your grip on all the things you hold on to too tightly in your mind.

All things are impermanent. Even the Colosseum crumbled.

JANUARY 15

Riches to Rags

Of the powerful, rich, and prosperous people who only last year were the most eminent in the land, many this year are already just names. Who knows whether those whose present wealth and importance makes them the envy of ordinary folk will still be in the same position this time next year—or even next month?

— PATRUL RINPOCHE 15

At the start of 2008, Irish businessman Seán Quinn was reportedly the richest person in Ireland, with an estimated net worth of £3.7 billion. He had made his billions through a series of investments in plastics, hotels, and banks. Quinn’s financial success likely made him an object of great inspiration and perhaps even greater envy. However, during the 2008 financial crisis, due to a series of misfortunes, Quinn’s net worth plummeted to below £50,000 and he was forced to file for bankruptcy.

No amount of money or power can prevent change, and Quinn is just one example. How many formerly powerful politicians are now powerless and forgotten? How many celebrities from a decade ago are irrelevant today? Your situation and status can change at a moment’s notice.

When you sincerely reﬂect on the transient nature of status, you protect yourself from being either too proud of or too despairing about your circumstances.

Sure, you can go from rags to riches. But you can just as quickly go from riches to rags.

A Single Mustard Seed

Have you ever, on earth or in the heavens, Seen a being born who will not die? Or heard that such a thing had happened? Or even suspected that it might?

—

THE BUDDHA 16

There once was a woman in ancient India who lost her only child. Unable to cope with his death, she clutched her infant’s body to her chest and went around the village looking for a means to revive him. After many failed attempts, she was filled with hope when a villager pointed her to the Buddha’s home. Upon arriving at the Buddha’s doorstep, she begged him to help her bring back her child. Sympathizing with her pain, the Buddha replied, “There is only one way to resolve your pain. Go into the village and find me a mustard seed from a family in which there has never been a death.”

With newfound zeal, she went looking for such a family. But by sundown, she was softened by the realization that her loss wasn’t unique. Every family had suﬀered the pain of losing a child, parent, spouse, or sibling. This understanding allowed her to accept the loss of her son.

Undoubtedly, the pain of losing a loved one is greater than any other. However, it is the nature of all lives to be impermanent. Sincere recognition of this truth can help us cope with a loss otherwise too painful to bear.

JANUARY

Friends Come and Go

They are friends in a moment, enemies the next. At an occasion for being pleased they get angry. The multitude of people are impossible to satisfy. —

ŚĀNTIDEVA 17

It is human nature to want to please your friends. However, this desire can become destructive when you base your self-worth on your friends’ approval.

As life conditions change, your friends’ feelings toward you may change as well. Let’s say you become successful. Some of your friends may celebrate with you; others may be envious. Who’s to say your friends today will be part of your life just five years from now?

Recognize this and cherish the friends you have, but free yourself from the need to please them. Friends come and go.

One Hundred Years from Now

Of all the people who were alive more than a hundred years ago, not a single one has escaped death. And in another hundred years from now, every single person now alive throughout the world will be dead. Not one of them will be left.

— PATRUL RINPOCHE 18

Henry V, king of England from 1413 to 1422, famously defeated the French in the Battle of Agincourt and later succeeded in combining the French and English crowns. As an almighty king in medieval Europe, Henry V likely felt invincible. But in the summer of 1422, just two years after uniting England and France, Henry V, then thirty-five, died of dysentery.

We often read about the deaths of historical figures like Henry V but rarely reflect on how their mortality mirrors our own. When you consider that neither Henry V nor anyone in his kingdom was able to escape death, you’ll have the sobering realization that death awaits all of us. Kings, billionaires, pop stars, engineers, and office clerks—in a hundred years or so, we’ll all meet the same end. Reflect on that for a moment.

The aim of this reﬂection isn’t to be morbid. The point is to awaken you to the urgency and preciousness of life. None of us have forever to live, so why not start living now?

JANUARY

You Are a Traveler

You are like a traveller in this life; don’t build a castle where you are just resting a while.

— PADAMPA SANGYE 19

Imagine renting a vacation home. Would you take the time to redecorate it? Of course not. After all, you’re just a traveler passing through. In the same way, if we zoom out, we may see that we are also travelers in this life. We travel from one phase of life to the next until eventually the lease runs out.

Despite this, we dedicate our entire lives to building and preserving our “castles”—going to incredible lengths to maintain our homes, appearances, careers, reputations, and material possessions. But sooner or later, we have to leave them all behind. Sure, until then, we will continue to decorate our homes, maintain our relationships, and keep up our appearances, but why not adopt a renter’s mentality and do so with less gravity and more levity?