Impermanence

This word has done much for me during my travels. It has both assisted me with many realities of life that plague our minds AND immediately dealing with things that come up for me while I travel.

I was introduced to this word in Nepal, first while attending the Buddhist philosophy classes at Shedra in Boudha and yet more in depth at the Kopan monastery retreat there in Kathmandu. It is strongly referred to in Buddhist philosophy and has such great importance to all of mankind yet for some reason, we tend to ignore this concept. The definition relates to "impermanent" which is defined as "not permanent". Easy enough.

Impermanence has many implications most of which we all don't like to think about. In fact at this point some of you reading this might switch over to

Personally I find great relief in accepting impermanence. Facing reality and realizing that yes, nothing IS permanent in this world; nothing will last forever and so, what more can I do but give up on it. If I fight it, I won't win. That moment in which I feel like I accept this idea I feel more at ease with my ailments or sufferings. I won't be on this Earth forever, these buildings won't be here forever, dinosaurs didn't last, our Sun has already exhausted half of it's life and some day, that too will burn out and thus, Earth will freeze - wait, I will die some day. Yes, I will cease to exist. And so will she, and he, and that person, and all of us. . . We will all die and then our children will die. I mean, we all know about this concept. We all realize that our day will come but yet, we still ignore it and we don't talk about it nor do we even think about it. We just wait for something to come along. We sit around, drink coffee, smoke, laugh, drive around, work our jobs assuming that tomorrow we will wake up just like we did today. . . And the next day, and the next. Until what?

Creatures of habit. We like comfortability too much. I know I do. Nothing bad will happen to us.

Maybe some of us can stop one day and observe. Just stop for a moment. Allow yourself to feel things, feel thoughts, let them come up but don't do anything - just sit with them and watch - become aware.
What is it all for?
Ask yourself why.
Everything we do is for something. We dont just do nothing.
We are doing Something.
What is it?
Do we need something?
And if so, once we have that something are we satisfied?
If not, then what do we want, something else.
Are we ever satisfied?
Something.
Is there enough money for us?
Something.
Do we want things we can't ever obtain?
When we think about all this, observe how we feel and see if you might then feel freedom?
Something.
Are we all separate people living here on Earth?
Or are we all one.
Is this reality?
Something.
What is it?
It.