Impermanence

Buddhism often refers to impermanence. The idea that all of life (conditioned and experiential) is constantly changing. They speak of it as a universal law of nature, like gravity, and invite each of us to discover if it is true or not ourselves. Is everything always changing, moving, sliding out from under our feet? Well, yes. And it’s the insecurity that impermanence brings that causes us to try so hard to control our circumstances and cling to stability wherever it can be found.

In its teachings, Buddhism suggests it is our attachment, our dire clinging for security to all the impermanent things in our lives, that creates our suffering. We fear the unknown. We want to be sure things will stay the same because we can stand on the familiar; whether it pleasure or pain, a memory or a desire, an unhappy relationship or a lucrative job, we cling to it. And when it changes or goes away, which it always does, we are indignant, angry, miserable.

Honor Impermanence. I used to have a sticky note posted in my bathroom medicine cabinet with these words. A reminder to stay present with the jostle and flow of life, to witness the coming and going and remain awake to it all with open heart. Openness; not clinging, not pushing and pulling, not holding on for dear life.

And in my mind, the quintessential symbol of impermanence is the ever-changing, multitudinous and constantly active ocean.