While we would like to believe our environment is stable and permanent, reality is more that it is impermanent. Suddenly our conditions may change sometimes drastically.
In a beautiful post ‘Impermanence‘, Om Swami expands on the struggle with impermanence and the suffering it sometimes creates.
“Sometimes, I wonder why are we so averse to adversities? Anything that doesn’t fall in line with our expectations from life, we label it suffering. […] The real problem is with the unrealistic nature of our expectations; the greatest being our desire that anything good in our life should stay as it is.”
An incident can be our awakening to impermanence. “That’s all you need sometimes, just one incident to awaken you. Just one wake up call to help you see what this samsara truly is – irrational and impermanent. Such a life transforming incident then changes your perspective forever. Your old tendencies still come and haunt you, but the awakened you handles life differently.”
We should lean into change in particular if there is nothing we can do about it and understand that it is the way the world goes. Just remind yourself that nothing is permanent. What we do with it is our choice.
