Our Teaware is Already Broken

our teaware is already broken
Image by Hans Braxmeier from Pixabay

The Buddhist monk Ajahn Chah talked about seeing a glass as if it was already broken.

The concept of impermanence is very important in Buddhism. It’s an inevitable part of existence.

Everything decays, so of course something that is fragile to begin with will one day break.

Hence one shouldn’t be disappointed when something breaks. It was to be expected and we should be thankful that it lasted.

I’ve broken a matcha bowl that I really liked, it was one of the first ones that I bought. I also broke a small porcelain teapot that wasn’t easy to obtain either.

At the time I felt regret.

But a few months ago a friend taught me about this philosophy. I remembered, and wrote this post.

Naturally, this applies to our own life. We don’t have much control as to what can happen.

Our bodies age, we may get sick, our dream doesn’t become true, a friend or loved one betrays our trust, disaster strikes, the list goes on and on.

We can live a happier life if we accept that the possibility of something bad happening is always present.

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With this mindset, once we break an item of our teaware collection we will not be sad. Instead, we will be amazed by how long (or how little) it lasted 🙂

There’s also a traditional way that the Japanese mend broken pottery so that it becomes more beautiful than before. But that’s a topic for another post.

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