Mutability

"We are as clouds that veil the midnight moon."

Everything’s always changing all the time.

Whether it’s our kids growing and taking on new friends and interests, our bodies becoming older and acting different, our workplace changing staff, or our parents remarrying, every system in which we participate is in a constant state of progressive flux.

It can often seem frightening, particularly when we begin to depend on certain things being constant.

In Buddhism, this is called Impermanence.

One cause for our suffering is our clinging to the status quo as though it were ultimately real, when in fact it is only illusory.

This can be a lot for the mind to take.

It’s difficult, and requires much investment of time, intellect, and energy to get to know the system in the first place.

When it begins to change, it can feel like a betrayal. It can feel like we were told to expect one thing, and are now being expected to completely start over.

This can be particularly challenging when it affects our immediate safety and well being.

But the truth is that all of us are mortal, and that every system in which we participate is influenced by that very mortality, as well as our whims, fancies, ideas, hopes, dreams, fears, and aspirations.

So we plant seeds where we can, and take care of them as we can, hoping that the conditions for growth may be favorable.

Which they may not be.

So we develop other systems which are known to better withstand the tests of time.

We create social groups and bonds.

We develop prayer and meditation practices.

But most of all, we develop ways to confront the base-level anxiety present in life so that, when we are confronted with a bad morning, we are not entirely knocked into a fit of despair.

Sometimes this amounts to simply going through the motions even when we don’t feel like it, simply out of the notion that this is simply what one does.

Because the anxiety is also impermanent.

Throughout our day, circumstances may surprise us in becoming suddenly hospitable to our temperament, despite our ill feelings.

Or, even if it doesn’t, we are capable of continuing to perform despite the unfavorable climate.

What else could we do? What would we?

This resilience is a suggestion of the great power of our consciousness as sentient beings, and a testament to our relationship with the world’s mountains, seas, and deserts.

It’s a well that never dries, and a rock that never moves.

All we need to do is turn to it in a spirit of embrace.

Our ability to hold, accept, cognize, consider, and reflect makes us participant within the entire story.

And it is a brilliant story, ages long, which connects us to all of history natural and human.

In light of these reflections, this morning I’m sharing a poem by Percy Shelley.

It speaks of the constancy of consciousness which persists despite our various goings-on.

May it be of some use to you, and may you find today some moment to delight irrespective of circumstance or context.

You are a remarkable creature, and it is a boon that you exist.

Affectionately,

Aaron

Mutability 

By Percy Bysshe Shelley

                                         I.
We are as clouds that veil the midnight moon;
    How restlessly they speed and gleam and quiver,
Streaking the darkness radiantly! yet soon
Night closes round, and they are lost for ever:—

                                         II.
Or like forgotten lyres whose dissonant strings
    Give various response to each varying blast,
To whose frail frame no second motion brings
    One mood or modulation like the last.

                                        III.
We rest—a dream  has power to poison sleep;
    We rise—one wandering thought pollutes the day;
We feel, conceive or reason, laugh or weep,
Embrace fond woe, or cast our cares away:—

                                       IV.
It is the same!—For, be it joy or sorrow,
    The path of its departure still is free;
Man's yesterday may ne'er be like his morrow;
    Nought may endure but Mutability.