Everything in the world, when we investigate its fundamental root, will become a memory. There is no duality between memory and illusion, so we say, life is one giant illusion. When you are happy, the world is changing, and you yourself are changing. When you are suffering, this change will not stop for a moment because of your suffering. Impermanence is the precondition for life being able to continue, and it is also the rule that we ourselves always follow. Impermanence itself should not be feared.
人非常有趣，因为大部分人只愿接受事物讨喜的一面，对于它不讨喜的一面，总是下意识地回避。所以，对自己的选择带来的后果，他们总是不愿坦然承担。
People are vey interesting, because most people just want to accept the enjoyable aspect of things, and are always subconsciously avoiding the aspect that is not enjoyable. Thus, they are never willing to calmly accept the results that are brought on by their choices.
举几个简单的例子：很多人都喜欢带着老婆孩子外出游玩，但遇上塞车、排队，总是诸多怨言；很多女孩都喜欢大量吃甜食，但发胖的时候，却又后悔不已；很多男孩都喜欢漂亮的女孩，可一旦这女孩变成自己的女友，却又害怕她受到别人的青睐……生活中，这样的例子实在是数不胜数。
Let’s take a simple example. Many men like to take their wives and children out to have fun, but when they encounter traffic jams and have to stand in queues, they are always full of complaints. Many girls like to eat a lot of sweets, but when they get fat, they endlessly regret it. Many boys like pretty girls, but when one of these girls becomes their girlfriend, they are afraid she will receive favors from other men. There are truly countless examples like this in life.
这是什么意思呢？这是说，我们看不清事物的真实面目，是因为偏见阻碍了视线。所以，我们才会那么抗拒无常。事实上，正如过量的甜食会让人发胖一样，无常也是自然规律。两者之间唯一的区别在于，你可以不吃甜食，但你却无法抗拒变化。
So what does this mean? It means that we cannot clearly see the true face of things, because our one-sided views block our line of sight. That is why we resist impermanence in this way. In fact, just as too many sweets will make people fat, impermanence is a natural law. The only difference between the two is that you can avoid eating sweets, but there is no way for you to resist change.
你还会发现，自己对“未知”的恐惧，正是缘于一种对“变化”的抗拒。大部分人都喜欢稳定，喜欢让一切维持在原有状态，任何一种“失去”的可能，都会让我们战栗不已。然而，这种惧怕除了让自己难受之外，再起不了更多的作用。因为，自然规律远比生命个体更为强大。或许我们可以通过某种方法，尝试延缓变化的过程，但我们始终无法阻止变化的产生。但是，这跟快乐又有什么绝对的关系呢？你快乐时，世界在变化着，你本身也在变化着；你痛苦时，这变化也不会因为你的痛苦而有一刻的停息。无常是生命能够延续的前提，也是我们本身就一直在遵循着的规律。它本身并不可怕。
You will also discover that your own fear of “the unknown” is linked to a kind of resistance to “change.” The great majority of people like stable certainty, they like everything to continue in its original condition. Any possibility of “loss” will make us shudder. However, except for making yourself feel that things are unbearable, this kind of fear cannot accomplish much. This is because natural law is far stronger than an individual living being. Perhaps through certain methods we can try to slow down the process of change, but ultimately we have no way to block the emergence of change. But does this have some absolute relationship with happiness? When you are happy, the world is changing, and you yourself are changing. When you are suffering, this change will not stop for a moment because of your suffering. Impermanence is the precondition for life being able to continue, and it is also the rule that we ourselves always follow. Impermanence itself should not be feared.
那么，我们为啥还那么害怕“未知”呢？因为我们认假成真，害怕承受一种失去的痛苦，对一切，我们都不愿放手。但很多时候，你不愿放，还是要放的。再者，一旦你坦然接受这“失去”，又会发现，原来它并没你想象中那么可怕。为啥？因为世上的一切，究其根本，都会变成记忆，记忆跟幻觉没有两样，所以说，生命是一个巨大的幻觉。
So then, why are we so fearful of the “unknown”? Because we accept the false as true, and we fear accepting the pain of loss, and we are never willing to let go of anything. But many times, you are unwilling to let go, but you have to let go. Again, once you calmly accept this “loss,” you will discover that actually it is not so fearful as you imagined. Why? Because everything in the world, if we investigate its basis, will all become memories, and memories are no different then illusions. That’s why we say that life is one vast illusion.
举个例子，我住的那个楼房存在吗？它当然存在，它能为我和家人遮风挡雨，能收纳我所有的心爱之物，我的书、我的石头、我的字画等等。但它不是本有的，它只是一种现象，没有永恒不变的自性。若干年前，这儿一片空旷，是一块坟地。我的爷爷曾在离这儿不远的地方盖了个小房子拾粪，拾铁路上的粪。他把粪拣到住的房子里，堆在当地，怕人偷粪，而且就在房中吃、睡。在他的眼里，这粪比什么都重要，不能丢了。但他就是不明白，这粪也是因缘聚合之物，这个房子也是因缘聚合之物。几年后，房子就被拆了，坟地也被推平了，种上了庄稼；再过十多年，庄稼地成了一个村庄，人们为了争盖房子的地，还打得头破血流。这些人不知道，这个村子也是因缘和合之物。他们不知道，多年之后，这块土地会被一个大老板买了去，把村子推平，修成了一座现代化的住宅小区。后来，我买了其中的一套楼，住了进来。于是，空荡荡的楼房里又盛满了我的东西。但这并不是终点，它还会一直变化，会无休止地变化下去。因为，无论村子、楼或是土地，都没有永恒不变的本体。由于因缘聚合，它们有了诸多显现，我们称之为缘起；但它们的本质却是无自性的，它们在时时刻刻发生着变化，所以又叫性空。
Let’s take an example. Does this apartment building where I live exist? Of course it exists. It can protect me and my family from the wind and rain; it can hold all the things I cherish: my books, my rock collection, my calligraphy, and so on. But it is not something that fundamentally exists, it is just an apparent phenomenon, and it has no eternally unchanging inherent nature. Years ago this plot of land was a cemetery. My grandfather built a small shed not far from here to collect manure, the manure from the railroad tracks. He took the manure and stored it in the house where he lived, and piled it on the ground, fearing people would steal it, and he ate and slept in that house. In his eyes, this manure was more important than anything, and could not be lost. But he did not understand that this manure was something formed by the coming together of causal conditions, and this house too was something formed by the coming together of causal conditions. Years later, the house was torn down, and the cemetery was flattened, and crops were planted. More than ten years after that, the cropland became a farm, and people fought bloody battles for land to build houses on. These people did not know that this village was also something formed by the coming together of causal conditions. They also did not know that many years later, this piece of land would be bought by a big boss, and the village would be flattened, and made into an area of modernized dwelling units. Later, I bought one of the buildings, and came to live there. At that point, this empty house again filled up with my things. But this was not the end; it will still go on changing, and will go on ceaselessly changing. This is because, no matter whether a village, or a building, or some land, nothing has a basic substance that is eternally unchanging. Because of the coming together of causal conditions, they have had many apparent forms. We call this causal origination. But their basic substance is without inherent nature. They undergo changes all the time, and so they are also called inherently empty.
世上一切在诞生、成长之后，都会以某个状态停驻一段时间，然后腐化、坏灭、幻变，最后消失。缘起性空是世界运作的规律，所有东西都是如此。明白这一点的时候，你再来反思生命中的所有事情，心里自然会少了许多迷惑与情绪，多了一份清醒与淡然。
Everything in the world, after being born and maturing, will stay in a certain form for a period of time, and will later decay and perish and undergo illusory transformation and finally disappear. The inherent emptiness of causal origination is the law of how the world operates, and all things are like this. When you understand this point, and you go back and reflect again on everything is life, in your mind there will naturally be fewer delusions and emotions, and more lucidity and equanimity.
一个朋友告诉我，她上大学的时候曾经喜欢过一个男孩子，对他非常好，后来两人走得越来越近，那男孩也对她产生了一种依恋。但是有一天，她突然失去了所有的感觉，然后毫不犹豫地离开了男孩的世界。类似的事情发生过好多次，她问我，自己是不是一个奇怪的人？我对她说，不是这样的。
A friend told me that when she was in college she had liked a certain young man, and was very fond of him. Later the two of them became closer and closer, and the young man became unwilling to be apart from her. But one day, she suddenly lost all her feelings for him, and later left his world without the least hesitation. Similar things happened many times, and she asked me if she were some kind of oddity. I told her she was not.
其实，男女之间的爱是小爱，它是一种感觉，也是一种情绪。它的产生也罢，保鲜也罢，都需要一定的条件。当这些条件不断变化的时候，它就会经历诞生、热烈、平淡、衰亡的过程。比如，你因为女人的美而爱她，那她不美了的时候，你还爱她吗？你与某人因志同道合而相爱，当你们的追求不再一致的时候，你还爱他吗？你因为女人对你的好而爱她，她对你没以前那么好的时候，你对她的爱还始终如一吗？你因为某人懂你而爱他，那他要是读不懂你了，你还会爱他吗……促使人们相爱的条件一直在变，所以能一辈子相爱的人非常少。许多情侣生活得久了，爱情就会转化为一种亲情，或是一种习惯。能够携手终老的人们，依靠的，必然不是一种浪漫但易变的感觉。而且，即便人们能一辈子相爱，终究还是会被死亡分开。所以，爱情不可能永恒。
In reality, the love between a man and a woman is the lesser love: it is a feeling, it is an emotion. For it to develop, for it to stay fresh, certain conditions are required. When these conditions continually change, love may go through a process of being born, becoming ardent, cooling off, and perishing. For example, you love a woman because of her beauty; then when she is no longer beautiful, will you still love her? You love someone because you have the same ambitions and are on the same path; when you are no longer seeking the same things, will you still love him? You love a woman because she loves you; when she is no longer as fond of you as before, will your love for her still be the same as it was? You love a person because he understands you, but if he can no longer interpret you, will you still love him? The conditions that impel people to love each other are constantly changing, and that is why very few people can love each other their whole lives. With many lovers, after they have lived a long time, their love changes into a kind of familiar affection, or a kind of habit. What people who can continue hand-in-hand into old age rely upon is certainly not a kind of romantic but volatile feeling. What’s more, even if people can love each other through their whole lifetimes, in the end they will still be separated by death. Thus, love cannot last forever.
那么，什么才是永恒之物呢？无常。唯有无常，才是这世上永恒的真理。不过，这并不意味着你应该随随便便地对待爱情与人生。相反，明白这一点之后，你应该从过去的所有伤痕以及对未来的所有不安中脱身出来，尽情享受与珍惜生命中的每一个当下，不要再煞费苦心地强求那并不存在的永恒。 So then, what does last forever? Impermanence. Impermanence alone is the world’s eternal truth. However, this does not imply that you should treat love and human life casually. On the contrary, after you understand this point, you must liberate yourself from all the wounds of the past and all the unease about the future, and thoroughly appreciate and value every moment in life; you must no longer take great pains forcing yourself to search for a permanence that does not exist
