The Book of Joy

to eat and drink what he pleased. Dr. Dhonden made some additional
recommendations, photos were taken together of the famous doctor and
famous patient, and then the good doctor left.
“As a Buddhist practitioner,” the Dalai Lama said, “I take seriously
the contemplation of the Buddha’s first teaching, about the inevitability
of suffering and the transient nature of our existence. Also, the Buddha’s
last teaching at the time of his death ends with the truth of
impermanence, reminding us how it is the nature of all things that come
into existence to have an end. The Buddha said nothing lasts.
“So it is important that in our daily meditation practice we continue to
think about our own mortality. There are two levels of impermanence. At
the grosser level, life keeps changing and things cease to exist, including
us. At the more subtle level, in every single moment everything is
changing, something science is able to show us happening, even at the
atomic and subatomic level. Our body is constantly changing, as is our
mind. Everything is in a constant state of change—nothing remains static,
and nothing remains permanent. In fact, as the Buddha reminds us, the
very causes that have given rise to something, such as our life, have
created the mechanism, or the seed, for that thing’s eventual end.
Recognizing this truth is an important part of the contemplation on
impermanence.
“Then I ask why impermanence happens. The answer is because of
interdependence—nothing exists independently. So this kind of
contemplation is part of my usual daily meditation practice. This practice
is actually to help one prepare for death, the intermediate state, and then
rebirth, so in order to carry out the practice effectively, you should reflect
on these things and visualize the process of death.
“Finally, I think you mentioned that we old people should prepare for
death, and it is important to make space for the future, for younger
generations. What is important to remember is that sooner or later death
comes and to make our life meaningful while we’re alive. I think
maximum lifespan is about a hundred years. Compared to human history,
a hundred years is quite short. So if we utilize that short period to create
more problems on this planet, our life would be meaningless. If we could