A 350-meter-wide asteroid called Apophis may collide with the Earth either in 2029 or 2036 (more likely in 2036). If it collides with the Earth this asteriod has the potential to be very destructive if it strikes a civilian population. Its potential destructive power is estimated to be 100,000 times more powerful than the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
It we assume that this asteroid might also cause something like the equivalent of a “nuclear winter” inasmuch as the dust it kicked up could block out the beneficial rays of the sun, millions might eventually die.
If all this makes your life seem almost hopeless and fragile well, guess what, it is—but it has been this way since beginningless time for all sentient beings. We are really deluded to imagine that our present life is secure and safe from harm. For all we know, we are like the dinosaurs before their extinction. Let’s keep in mind that the Buddha said this existence is impermanent, unsatisfactory, and certainly insubstantial. The only permanent, true reality lies beneath this transitory phenomenal veil. By various names it is called the undying element, Buddha-nature, Dharma-body, the One Mind, nirvana, etc.
On this same track we need to be somewhat cynical about the majority of mankind’s love of truth—it could not care less (at least this is the verdict of history). We should not presume that the human species actually cares about seeing and perfecting their Buddha-nature; especially not when sex, food, and finding shelter from the harsh elements and predators are taken to be more important and vital occupations.
Even if we all had the time and opportunity to contemplate and uncover the One Mind—living in a veritable utopia—sex, food, and shelter whould still be more alluring. And then we would have to listen to and contend with the skeptics who would deny that a true nature or reality exists—except for their own vain nature which they assume to be absolute!
Only when some impending disaster seems to be looming on the horizon does the human mind turn to deeper things. But then not all turn to deeper and more profound things. The bulk of mankind either puts their faith in science or in some long overdue beneficent savior or messiah who in the past promised to rescue them which, of course, will never happen.
Nevertheless, impending disasters have their value in the same way that the recognition of our own impending death does. Both may cause us to wrestle with the meaning of life which too few people, these days, appear concerned; who behave more like self-willed brats than adults.
Because of rebirth, at least for we Buddhists life doesn’t end with this life or with a huge asteroid striking the Earth. Impermanence, suffering and insubstantiality will never end until we actually comprehend the permanent, bliss, and the true self.