Never Truly Gone, Only Seeming to Depart
For the sake of saving beings he shows, as a skillful means, the appearance of passing away; yet in truth he never perishes, but abides here always.
Do I recognize what is always beside me only after it seems to have gone?
📝Reflection
Behind this verse lies a painful truth of human nature. What is always present, people forget to treasure. Like the parable of sons who take the medicine only when the physician feigns going far away. The teacher says: my seeming to depart is only a skillful means, so that you long for me and seek the teaching in earnest. Only after a parent, a teacher, a beloved is gone do we feel the weight of the words they left. Yet here is the verse's comfort: what is truly precious does not perish. The form may leave, but the teaching, the love, abides here always. Departure is not vanishing — it is the means by which we finally come to see.
🌱Apply It Today
Bring to mind one person you take for granted because they are always there, and speak your gratitude now — not after they are gone. Recognizing what is present is the hardest thing.
This verse is read as universal humanistic wisdom, not religion — no faith is promoted, and the reflection is 100% original ONGO content.
