Isn't it Great!?

I watched the news last night, and there was an interview with a Buddhist Monk (how often does that happen?) who talked about comforting people reeling from the effects of the Tsunami. How does he comfort them? He reminds them, as Buddha taught, that everything is impermanent. Seems like cold comfort, not exactly 'pie in the sky.'

But of course, this means that happiness and sadness, pleasure and pain, knowledge and ignorance, wealth and poverty, health and sickness, war and peace - everything changes, everything is insubstantial, ephemeral. Many of the things we stake our lives on, are shifting beneath us.

The Monk, bald, with big clunky glasses, orange robe, was vibrant, alive, he had an easy smile and a silly, comical peacefulness in his bearing. He looked into the camera and said, 'everything is impermanent.' He said it like it was a punchline to a long, complicated joke. Hah, hah, impermanent, yes, and (this left unsaid), oh boy, isn't it great!?