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impermanence

མི་​རྟག་​པ།

Biblical: that which is mortal, impermanent, or perishable: མི་​རྟག་​པའི་​མི། mortal man (Rom. 1:23), མི་​རྟག་​པའི་​ཅོད་​པན། a crown which perishes (1 Cor. 9:25). The Bib. writers, like the Buddha, had a keen sense of the changeable, transient, and impermanent nature of life and of the suffering this imposes upon man: འཆི་​བར་​འདྲེན་​པའི་​ལུས་​འདི་​ལས་​ང་​སུས་​སྒྲོལ། who will rescue me from this body of death (Rom. 7:24), ཤག་​ཁྲག་​དང་​ལྡན་​པ་​ལ་​དཀོན་​མཆོག་​གི་​རྒྱལ་​སྲིད་​ཀྱི་​ཐོབ་​སྐལ་​མེད། flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God (1 Cor. 15:50). Unlike the Buddha, they looked beyond the impermanence of this life to an eternal, unchanging inheritance from God: མཐོང་​བ་​རྣམས་​མི་​རྟག་​པ་​ཡིན་​ཅིང་​། མི་​མཐོང་​བ་​རྣམས་​རྟག་​པ་​ཡིན། what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal (2 Cor. 4:18); and to the hope of the renewal of all things at the last day: བཀོད་​པ་​ཐམས་​ཅད་​ཀྱང་​མི་​རྟག་​པ་​དེ་​ལས་​བསྒྲལ། the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay (Rom. 8:21 SV).

Buddhist: མི་​རྟག་​པ། impermanence: change which causes suffering (KBT 94). In the Bst. view, འདུས་​བྱས་​ཐམས་​ཅད་​མི་​རྟག་​པ། everything that has a cause is impermanent (TRC 94), and it is this impermanence which causes suffering. འཆི་​བ་​མི་​རྟག་​པ་​སྒོམ་​པ། or meditation on the impermanence [caused by] death (TRC 226) is used to focus novices' perception of མི་​རྟག་​པ་​རགས་​པ། or gross impermanence. The suffering caused by impermanence is the subject of the first of the བདེན་​པ་​བཞི། or Four Truths; the remainder of Bst. doctrine deals with the methods of escape from such suffering.

Proverbs: ཇི་​ལྟར་​ལྦུ་​བ་​མཐོང་​བ་​དང་​། ཇི་​ལྟར་​སྨིག་​སྒྱུ་​མཐོང་​གྱུར་​པ། འཇིག་​རྟེན་​དེ་​ལྟར་​མཐོང་​བ་​རྣམས། འཆི་​བདག་​རྒྱལ་​པོས་​མཐོང་​མི་​འགྱུར། those who view the world as if it were a bubble or a mirage will not be seen by the lord of death (DMP 88).