Mindful Breathing 3: Contemplating Impermanence

On 3 March 2004 Thich Nhat Hanh begins the last four of the sixteen exercises, the contemplation of impermanence. He presents it as an instrument to keep insight alive through the day, not a statement of fact, and ties it to cherishing a loved one and the retreat itself. He gives a four-line verse to recite during a quarrel, in which each person pictures the other three hundred years on.

He uses a cloud and a cup of tea to show seeing beyond appearances, such as the hills where the tea grew, separates momentary from cyclical impermanence, and says impermanence and non-self are one insight. He recalls the four fruits of practice and ends on thinking without a thinker.