“Impermanence ….. the notion that all of conditioned existence, without exception, is transient, or in a constant state of flux.”
I embrace it. I assert that nothing in life is permanent. Nothing. Death and taxes are said to be two of the only things in life that are absolutes. Yet, every year countless people do not pay taxes ( or savvy business people or politicians find “loop holes” to escape the said absolute the rest of us have bought into paying yearly (or quarterly…) and I haven’t died yet so I’m not even certain that death is an absolute rather a transitional period in this aspect we call life. I guess when it happens, I will then know if that state is an absolute permanent one….until then, I will assert nothing in life is absolutely permanent.
With that notion, with that belief, there is freedom. Freedom to make each day better than the previous day. Freedom to evaluate what works well in your life, and what doesn’t, and make necessary changes. Freedom to allow yourself to just be in the moment, knowing no matter how difficult or how joyous, the only thing certain that will follow is difference. Freedom.
In clinical practice, I work with clients who are absolutely certain the negative emotions they’re experiencing will with absolutely certainty never ever be any less intense than the moment they walked into my office. And with complete regularity, in that absolute moment they’re sharing their negative experiences, there is light, there is change, there is movement, there is hope.
One of the scariest experiences in life is to believe in our hearts that our pain, our sorrow, or anguish will forever be exactly as it is in the moment we are most acutely experiencing it. But when we look at the concept or belief of impermanence, when we truly embrace that in life nothing can ever be exactly constant, then we can begin to understand when we allow ourselves to change to move to grow, we give ourselves permission to let go of the negative and painful emotions and accept the good that come from everything in life. EVERYTHING.
I’ve written before on the good that came from 9/11. Not the event. Not the death. Not the terror. Not the pain. Not the horror. But the good that came from humans helping other humans. The good that came from people embracing life, embracing love, embracing each other and knowing in a moment…..life can be changed in a way that can seem inconceivable, and would we really want our last moments in this earthly body to be filled with hatred, to be filled with anger, to be filled with angst when there are so many other choices we can decide for ourselves if we allow ourselves to be open to change…
I’m often asked how it is that I can be so calm in the face of tragedy. How is it that I rarely seem angry or frazzled, even when there are outside stimuli trying to get me to react in a negative manner. My answer is simple, and perhaps abstract at the same time….I truly believe so little if anything in life is permanent, and when I have let go and let God or let go and just let my life’s course do as it will…..there I find peace. There I find light. There I find love. Simple And Complex.
No matter how joyous, or how tragic our life is, no emotion we feel is ever permanent. So why give the negative so much power over us? Perhaps if we let go more, and waited for the joy to come, then we would find the inner peace so many of us are truly looking for in our lives?
Peace……..
peaceinthejourney 