Experiencing the fragility of life affirms the worth of living. Beauty fades as quickly as it is experienced and thus it lives forever. And the moment passes so instantaneously that it cannot be contained by the intellect, making it everlasting. [The Japanese concept of] mono no aware embraces all of these assertions.
When we see a dancer unexpectedly leap into the air with incredible grace, the beauty of the action captures the mind in an instant — and in the next instant it's gone. We glimpse the elegant movement of tall trees curtsying in the wind, but this too lasts only a moment. This sudden awareness of a fleeting beauty is well illustrated by a shooting star.
— H. E. Davey, Living the Japanese Arts & Ways