Rigdzin Shikpo writes in Never Turn Away: The Buddhist Path Beyond Hope and Fear:

As Buddhist practitioners, we train to see the significance of impermanence at every level: at the seemingly insignificant level of everyday things like shopping and watching television, as much as the dramatic and emotionally compelling level of old age, sickness, and death.

Some people feel Buddhism is pessimistic. But really it is neither optimistic nor pessimistic. It is just seeing things as they are. Buddhist practice is about becoming more open, clear, and sensitive. There is nothing gloomy about that. Of course, this makes our experience clearer and sharper, and we might not like that. Of course, this makes our experience clearer and sharper, and we might not like that. We may feel uncomfortable when our seemingly solid world becomes “more transparent” and “not so easily grasped at,” as Trungpa Rinpoche used to say. But it is hardly pessimistic to see that the world of our experience is potentially a much brighter, vaster place than we ever thought possible.