INTRODUCTION

organism may take over as a self-protective measure and
create an illness in order to force you to stop, so that the
necessaryregenerationcantakeplace.
The cyclical nature of the universe is closely linked
with the impermanence of all things and situations. The
Buddha made this a central part of his teaching. All
conditionsarehighlyunstableandinconstant flux,or,ashe
put it, impermanence is a characteristic of every condition,
every situation you will ever encounter in your life. It will
change,disappear,ornolongersatisfyyou.Impermanenceis
alsocentraltoJesus'steaching:"Donotlayupforyourselves
treasures onearth,where moth andrustconsumeand where
thievesbreakinandsteal...."
As long as a condition is judged as "good" by your
mind,whetheritbearelationship,apossession,asocialrole,
aplace, oryour physical body,themindattachesitself to it
and identifies with it. It makes you happy, makes you feel
goodaboutyourself,anditmaybecomepartofwhoyouare
or think you are. But nothinglasts in this dimension where
mothandrustconsume.Eitheritendsoritchanges,oritmay
undergo a polarity shift: The same conditionthat was good
yesterday or last year has suddenlyor graduallyturned into
bad. The same condition that made you happy, then makes
you unhappy. The prosperity of today becomes the empty
consumerism of tomorrow. The happy wedding and
honeymoon become the unhappy divorce or the unhappy
coexistence.Oraconditiondisappears,soitsabsencemakes
youunhappy.Whenaconditionorsituationthatthemindas
attached itself to and identified with changes or disappears,
the mind cannot accept it. It will cling to the disappearing
conditionandresistthechange.Itisalmostasifalimbwere
beingtornoffyourbody.
We sometimes hear of people who have lost all their
money or whose reputation has been ruined committing
suicide. Those are the extreme cases. Others, whenever a
majorlossofonekindoranotheroccurs,justbecomedeeply
unhappy or make themselves ill. They cannot distinguish