The Truth of Impermanance

one of the Buddha's most profound teachings 2,000 from 2500 years ago one of the wood is most profound teachings he said is that everything changes that life and change are synonymous so in the Buddhist teaching of impermanence he said everything changes and everything changes all the time nothing is permanent nothing is static everything changes it's the truth of impermanence and the truth is that most human beings and most of us even though we know that everything changes and then we know that we know that everything is impermanent we don't take it very seriously and we choose to live our lives as if nothing ever changes and everything is static or unchanging it means that we're out of alignment with the ultimate truth about the way things are and if we're living in a perfect in a profound lack of a line and you're out of alignment with the truth of the way things are I mean so we're always gonna be unprepared for when the inevitable happens so what is Zoe so what is inevitable is the fact that everything changes so if we're living in alignment with the truth that everything changes we will be more emotionally and psychologically philosophically and spiritually prepared for when things change so so when when something happens in our life either in our life or life around us that demonstrates the truth of impermanence the truth of impermanence at the Buddha taught it means we're not going to be surprised but we're gonna say of course this is the way things are and so this is a time I think this is a time this particular moment in our shared experience of life in 2020 in history I think this is I think we're all given an opportunity now when we're not when in the in those in those time to the day when we're not concerned about survival these are moments when we can actually contemplate the Buddhist teaching of impermanence and the truth about change we can actually use this as an opportunity to meditate on it to contemplate the truths about the nature of impermanence and the truth about the nature of perpetual change cuz now it's happening we're all in the midst of it and can we and can can we use our spiritual practice and can we use our higher consciousness and can we use our discriminating wisdom to help us to to help us through this crisis to debris can we bring it to bear right now as we in the midst of the experience that we're actually have happen you know how having because if we can bring these deep metaphysical and philosophical truths - if we can bring them into focus right now but that takes it takes a little bit of courage and it takes a little bit of concentration and it also takes and requires from us a love of spirit a love of Dharma a love of moksha a love of inner freedom we have to we have to want to be free we that we need to because if you want to be free and you've read and you're seriously interested in Mukti or liberation we learn to use every moment that happens in life as an opportunity to let go and to be free it's an opportunity to let go and to be free and to see and know the truth to let going to be created to see know the truth can we refrain from too quickly drawing conclusions about what's good and what's bad and what's right and what's wrong right now and can we refrain from drawing any conclusions and as a result create a lot more space and our awareness in order to see and to feel and to understand what's actually happening now not from a place of panic and fear and insecurity but from a face of awakened interest and awaken curiosity in order to understand and ultimately be able to experience dissing security from a place of awaken rationality awakened objectivity and a clarity and a calmness but once again to be able to do it it requires that we that we exercise spiritual self-discipline so spiritual self-discipline when we apply spiritual self-discipline it means we're not going to be just following the mind wherever it takes us we're not going to be following our emotions wherever they take us it means we are striving spiritually good to be masters of our own destiny masters of our own experience masters our own consciousness masters of our own minds and masters of our own bodies so this requires spiritual self-discipline case specifically it's not running away it's not running away with frightened conclusions about what's happening but it's about allowing ourselves to see and experience the insecurities of the present moment from a place of awakened interest in awaken curiosity with a very big open heart awakened interest in awakened curiosity with a very big open heart I'm not I'm not in any in any way advocating that we want to avoid or deny anything that's true I'm not advocating anything like that but I'm saying that can we I mean it I mean this is a great opportunity now because a lot of us has to stay at home we can't just do all the things that we ordinarily do we're not allowed to we're not allowed to carry on as usual so so even though practically practically and financially this may be this is an enormous disruption and an enormous disturbance for all of our lives spiritually it's a it's it's a great gift I mean you know we can't see it that way if we want to and that's how I'm choosing to see it so it's a great gift because because you know people come to my retreats they're always saying that they never have any time to meditate most people say they never have any time to meditate they never have any time to think deeply or consider these big metaphysical and philosophical questions that are bringing up and they said only when they take this timeout when they take out three days or a week or ten days do they begin to slow down and have the opportunity to really go deep but now it seems that life has unexpectedly given us all this profound opportunity to take some time out from the predictability of our normal lives whatever and whatever normal means I don't know what the word normal really mean but the but life has the life conditions have changed and such and they've changed dramatically and suddenly in such a way that we've all been have we've all been afforded this great opportunity for contemplation meditation and introspection about the nature of existence about the nature of the human experience about an opportunity to contemplate the Buddha's great teaching about the nature of impermanence and this is a great it's a we can if we can if we choose to see this moment as a great opportunity and as a great gift as and as an enormous opportunity to really look very deeply into the nature of existence on the nature of the human experience and the kind in the context of great insecurity and you know and if we if we think about it objectively and if we think about it rationally from a certain point of view from a certain perspective this moment that we're living in right now is not really different from any other in the sense that nothing nothing is safe you know in terms of manifest existence nothing is safe nothing is secure and nothing is predictable that is radical insecurity that we're all experiencing so suddenly is actually the truth of the way things are all the time from the perspective of the Buddha's teaching of Institute of impermanence and constant change so this is the truth that were always living in but as I was saying earlier when I was speaking we we deny it you know where we we live in denial of the truth of the Buddha's teaching of impermanence and the perpetual nature of change and and did it and the degree to which we are living in constant denial of the absolute truth of the Buddhist teaching of impermanence and constant change did the do to do to the degree that we're living in denial of change means that we are out of a line as I was as I said before out of alignment with reality which makes us crazy people only crazy people deny the what's objectively true and objectively real but we're all crazy because we insist on pretending to ourselves and to each other this is not just a private practice of pretense it's not just a private practice of pretense but we pretend to each other that we know that nothing's going to change in the way that we live our lives and in the way that we relate to each other you're in the kind of relationships we have I mean imagine how different human life would be or could be if we could find a way to embrace the Buddhist teaching of impermanence and of content of the perpetual nature of change if we could embrace that at a very deep very deeply you know emotionally psychologically philosophically and spiritually if we could embrace that truth very deeply imagine how the effect would have on our relationships so in other words if I knew that nothing was predict altima dicta boleyn othing was assured except death sooner if I knew that nothing was predictable then when I would meet when I was with you and when you were with me or when we were with each other whether we were having dinner together having a coffee or sharing a moment of intimacy and kindness we would our attention to the profundity of the sharing that we were experiencing because we would know that this may be the last time that we would see each other and this and that and that and the knowledge of impermanence in that context awakens awakens the light of enlightened awareness because we realized that this this is it I may never see you again so if I was with you and I knew that I might might might never see you again I wouldn't take you for granted and you wouldn't take me for granted and I wouldn't treat the moment very casually but I would I would I would bring so much more of my awareness to the moment my heart would be much more available to you and to myself because I would be so much more present because of course in life we take so much for granted and we're living in our minds all the time we live in our minds we don't live in it we don't live in a reality and the reality is it truly is we're living in our minds so it keeps us so it keeps us asleep remember you remember when remember somebody once asked the Buddha they asked him are you a god and he said no I'm not a God he said I'm awake that's love that he said I'm not a god I'm out and I'm awake so I'm I'm trying to describe in my own way what I am i understanding what it means to be awake in the context of helping us all to try to come to terms with the potential spiritual significance of this moment in history in 2020 that we're all in the midst so I think that this from a spiritual but not from a practical point of view but from a spiritual point of view this moment is affording all of us a great opportunity to look very deeply into the nature of human experience into the nature of reality itself in a way that could be an enormous benefit to us it's an opportunity because as I was just saying remember the truth the truth of impermanence or the truth of the truth of absolute insecurity that this moment is making apparent to us as I was just saying is the truth of every single moment anyway