5 ideas
If life never faded, it would lose its power to move us; the uncertainty of the world is exactly what gives it value. Wanting to live forever, or clinging past the natural span, dulls the sensitivity that makes experience worth having. Transience is not a flaw to be mourned but the condition of beauty and feeling.
Asking whether we should look at cherry blossoms only in full bloom, or the moon only when cloudless, Kenkō argues that anticipation, decline and partial concealment move the imagination more than the peak moment. Blossoms about to open, scattered petals, and the moon behind rain engage the viewer because they leave something unfinished. The same logic applies to objects and buildings: uniformity and completeness are dull, and leaving something undone keeps it alive.
A famous tree-climber directed a man to cut branches from a tall tree and said nothing while he worked at dangerous heights. Only when the man had come down to about the height of the eaves did he call out, 'Be careful! Watch your step coming down.' Asked why, he explained that at dangerous heights fear makes people careful on their own, and accidents happen once things look easy.
An archery teacher tells a beginner not to carry two arrows, because knowing he has a second shot makes him careless with the first. Having a backup quietly lowers commitment to the attempt in front of you. The fix is to treat each attempt as the only one, and to act now instead of assuming there will be a later chance to do it properly.
Seasons do not wait for one another to finish. The buds of the new season are already pushing inside the old one, so change is underway before it becomes visible. Death likewise does not come in an orderly sequence from the front, where we could see it coming. It is already behind us, so putting off what matters until conditions are settled is a fundamental error.