Impermanence: This too shall pass!

This one line has a lot of strength.

Next quick question arises- What shall pass?

Answer: Just about Every Thing!!

Nothing stays the same, everything is perishable, and eventually fades away. This is one constant rule, when scoped in all forms of experiences and interactions, draws more meaning, engagement and acceptance of what is.

In general, for simplicity lets categorize experiences into these three definitions,

• Neutral
• Joyous
• Hardship

This topic does not attempt to delve into the sources of such experiences, but rather tries to address them on the surface, by internalising this one simple idea that nothing stays the same.

Humans by nature are uncomfortable with change, more so when that carries a significant exposure to something that’s unknown. Not knowing drives people crazy, hence every year we are trying to shape our own definitions around the unknowns, condensing, and adding more words to the dictionary. Change has this inherent characteristic of the unknown quotient.

Now, lets briefly draw a fundamental principle from physics: Inertia of motion

By definition, a body that is already in a state of motion, will have a tendency to continue in exactly the same state of motion (with the same speed and the same direction) unless an external unbalanced force acts upon it to change that state of motion.

We see change as an external unbalanced force that disrupts state of motion. Similarly, this is applicable for any state of experience/emotion/feeling, categorised above as neutral, joyous, hardship (to varying degrees).

Drawing such parallels, we can observe how easily we get consumed by a particular state of situation and continue to extrapolate the same state throughout, unless hit by an internal refresh, external opposite experience, or the initial reason itself fades away, or resorting to a good nights’ sleep :-)

Let’s pick each kind, and start internalizing the inherent nature of impermanence in our daily life.

Joyous: Extreme happiness often, is followed by dull moments. What follows is not actually “dull”! By nature we extrapolate extreme joyous moments, and hence when it actually fades, a comparative “dull” takes shape- that’s unreal! Whenever, we are extremely happy or joyous, lets completely be in that experience, but also, it merits to draw awareness into the now regarding the inherent nature of impermanence. This allows us to be absolutely in the now, and not associate relative definitions of dull/exciting, and we start drawing median out of the spikes and troughs.

Neutral: This is rare in absolute sense! In all kinds of experiences there’s some kind of attachment by quality of perception that makes us feel good or bad at miniscule degrees (let’s assume them to fall into this one category, again for simplicity). By nature of impermanence, such neutral states can suddenly turn into joy or hardship. We should know, nature around us is continuously working, evolving and syncing the grand interconnectedness of beings, both living and non-living. So there’s never nothing happening!- and we should be ready to let go neutral states at any moment, and welcome new with grandeur, no matter how good or bad it is.

Hardship: In this case let’s draw parallels from one of my favourite movies Peaceful Warrior. Somewhere in there, it says: “A warrior is not about perfection, or victory, or invulnerability. He’s about absolute vulnerability. That’s the only true courage.” It will be a good, rare watch- can go for it! As a practice, we need to have a higher degree of acceptance, surrender to what is, rather than focusing what can be?!- because when we focus on what can be, we deviate from reality and start resisting the now; perfect way to screw things up! :D . I will leave it here, and not elaborate since as a practice we generally associate “This too shall pass” ONLY in moments of despair.

What I recommend is, this phrase is very powerful when applied by default to any moment that we experience in the now.