That Kooky Buddha

Grasp:  Seize and hold firmly.

"Suffering I teach, and the way out of suffering."  The Buddha

Here suffering does not mean pain but the profound discomfiture which we experience when all our attempts to remedy or evade pain prove futile.  Not that what we have to work with is not the cause of our discomfiture (the pain itself - mental, physical, emotional) but how we experience it (that is, our sense of discomfiture) - not what is afflicting us out there, but what it feels like in here, in the mind.  

"The more you think about it, the more you talk about it, the further from it you go.  Put an end to wordliness and intellection and there is nothing you will not understand.  For what can words tell of that which has no yesterday, tomorrow, or today?"  Ancient Ch'an scripture

There is a lot of thought put into the concept of aging.  As there should be, of course, though me thinks overly much for many people.  However we could easily substitute pain or discomfort in its place, making the problem and the solution more accessible to everyone.  It's all grasping.  Holding on to something, some thing, some person, some idea, our life force, our always diminishing life force, under constant attack from the constant march of time.

The Buddha has taught that everything changes, and many Buddhists repeat that teaching as a patent truism.  But suppose we were to rephrase those words to say: "Everything we love and cherish is going to age, decline, and eventually disappear.  This truism takes on a different coloration and urgency.  It's all going to go, the Buddha is saying, all of it - everything that matters to us.

Sobering.  Sobering, and incredibly freeing.