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- 🕊️ Beauty in the Fading
🕊️ Beauty in the Fading
TWO-MINUTE MONK
Ancient wisdom for modern life, every Monday.
🧘 Monk Thought
“The most precious thing in life is its uncertainty.”
— Kenkō Yoshida, Tsurezuregusa (14th century)
💡 Monk Light
We want things to last.
Love. Health. Security. Certainty.
But Kenkō, writing from a quiet monastery seven centuries ago, reminds us:
The beauty is in the brevity.
The preciousness lies in the not-knowing.
A cherry blossom is admired not in full bloom, but when it begins to fall.
A teacup is beautiful not because it lasts, but because it’s fragile.
The lesson: Stop wishing things were permanent.
Start seeing what makes them precious.
Kenkō Yoshida (c. 1283–1352) was a Japanese Buddhist monk, poet and author of Tsurezuregusa (Essays in Idleness)—a masterpiece of Zen-infused simplicity and impermanence.
👣 Monk Move
Today, notice one thing that’s slipping away—a season, a shadow, a moment of calm.
Don’t hold it tighter.
Just say:
“This is beautiful because it won’t last.”
And let it pass.
🔐 The Monk Vault is now open.
You can find all the previous posts by the Two-Minute Monk in the Vault. The weekly post from the Monk will always be free but at some point in the future, I will create a small subscription of no more than £2 per month to access the Vault to see previous posts and get extra material. For now, though, the Vault remains open and free. Enjoy!