Change.

Impermanence.

Nothing lasts forever.

“Life is a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow, a flash of lightning, a drop of dew.” We know this, and so when the time comes, we try to push out of our minds the thought that a loved one is dying. Except that it doesn’t work.

We’re attached and we cannot let go. We cannot bear the thought that one day soon we will lose her. But it happens, and on that most terrible day our world drops away from below us.

Totally in shock and numbed, we are adrift. No longer with an option to push reality away, we come face-to-face with impermanence.

We are alone. We are in pain. We suffer.

Lifetime after lifetime, we have clung very tightly to our attachments. We know the reality, yet refuse to accept it. We prefer to live in ignorance, ensnared by our emotions and mired in our habits. This will continue into an endless future unless we change.

We need to awaken.

Now.

Are we asking “Can I?” Or . . .

“Too old to learn; just be good.”

One day at a Buddhist center, while helping a monk carry some supplies to another building, he asked my age. Such a question in Chinese culture is not at all rude, even if we had just met. Knowing another person’s age helps determine how to treat the person. Those who are younger treat those who are older with the proper respect.

In response to his query, I replied, “Forty-eight.”

He considered my answer for a moment, and responded earnestly, “Too old to learn. Just be good.”

Over the years, people have reacted differently to this “too old to learn” comment. I didn’t question or get upset over the first part. Perhaps it was the way he said it. Perhaps it was my growing familiarity with this question.

Somehow, I just zoomed in on that last bit. Such a simple instruction: Just be good. That’s all we have to do. We don’t need to complicate our practice. Don’t need to study a vast array of sutras and commentaries.

Just learn one sutra.

Just chant one Buddha’s name.

Just be good.