icp219@nyu.

edu
N15014717
10/3/16
Philosophy: Life and Death
On the Dew Drop metaphor, from In the Buddhas Words by Bhikku Bhodi
Words: 649
The Buddha presents a picture to us: dew drop on the tip of a blade of grass. Small, fragile,
and alone. The dewdrop will quickly vanish at sunrise, as all dew drops do in the morning. Even so,
says the Buddha, is human life like a dew drop. Every human life is short, limited, and brief; it is full of
suffering, full of tribulation. I believe that this final assertion, that life is full of suffering, does follow
from the premise; but I feel that the assertion is incomplete, and shows a bias toward a negative view of
life, which is not entirely supported.
The image illustrates, firstly, the transience of life. The comparison is that each life is as fleeting
as dew on grass in the morning: it evaporates immediately as the sun warms it. Further, this means that
throughout ones life, the ups and downs that one experiences, the discoveries and disappointments, all
of the great and small evens, every success and failure: all of these things are a tiny fraction of the
dewdrops life. The dewdrops of the dewdrop. In comparison with the wide world we inhabit, relative to
the movement of the Earth and the Sun, our experiences are less than negligible.
The following assertion, that life is full of suffering, follows from the fact of lifes transience.
All experience comes from the things that we encounter in life. The people, the places and experiences
we have define our existence. If we experienced nothing, we couldnt say that we were living. And all of
these things, both the pleasurable and the painful, like our lives, are fleeting, subject to change and
eventual annihilation. All that we gain, we necessarily lose, and the loss of joy is its own pain. And when
we recognize this fact, the realization of our mortality and the transience of our surroundings, is also a
pain, and a burden that we carry until life ends. If all things in life, and life itself, are impermanent, and
impermanence is painful in itself, then the one thing that stays with us the longest in life is pain. And so,
it is short, limited, and brief; it is full of suffering, full of tribulation.

icp219@nyu.edu
N15014717
10/3/16
Philosophy: Life and Death
On the Dew Drop metaphor, from In the Buddhas Words by Bhikku Bhodi
Words: 649
As for the plausibility of this position, Im almost convinced. I can buy that all things are fleeting
and always cause us suffering; I believe that in the grand scheme of the universe, each life is like a
dewdrop, and trying to savor the good moments is, in some ways, a futile and self-defeating path. But
the view seems prescriptive, to me, that I should therefore perceive the whole of life as painful: I should
not be happy to be alive, because eventually I will be sad or in pain; the joys that come to us are devoid
of value, because every joy is accompanied by sorrow. There is an implicit pessimism that I dont think is
entirely necessary.
Cant one also say, as easily, that as life is like a dewdrop, fleeting and impermanent, that all
pain is eventually met with joy? That relief from painful experiences can be thought of as its own joy; all
that we lose, we inevitably gain; that when we recognize this fact, we realize that begrudging our pains
is a futile and self-defeating act, and our mortality and the transience of things is a joyful promise of
freedom from suffering?
To me, it stands to reason that if it is my choice to espouse a negative view of the universe, it
must also be my choice to do the opposite. If I had never heard that life was full of tribulation with some
moments of joy, I would believe that life was full of happiness, with moments of sorrow. I am not
entirely convinced because it seems that the result of our physical transience is a matter of perspective,
and not objective reasoning.

icp219@nyu.edu
N15014717
10/3/16
Philosophy: Life and Death
On the Dew Drop metaphor, from In the Buddhas Words by Bhikku Bhodi
Words: 649
Sources Cited:

Bodhi, Bhikkhu. In the Buddha's Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon.
Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2015. Print.