Impermanence: our ephemereality

Aphorism 59

Impermanence is the idea that reality is continually perishing; that each moment is a fleeting instance eagerly waiting to be replaced by the next; that everything flows, panta rhei; that change is inevitable; that reality is an emerging and abiding sway; that we and the reality around us are perpetually in a state of becoming; in sum: it is the idea that nothing lasts.

Aphorism 60

Learning to live with the idea of impermanence is the hardest thing a person can come to do. So it is no surprise that so many people fail to do so. Far too many people go from the cradle to the grave clutching at boundaries that have long ceased to be relevant, helpful, or true—and they are miserable because of it. Clutching at permanence even in the face of impermanence is neurotic and leads to cognitive dissonance: an inability for our categories of understanding the world (our boundaries) to align themselves with the world itself. There is an incongruity that leads to tension. Yet it is the most widespread malady in human history.

Aphorism 61

Impermanence is the hardest lesson to learn: one that we are continually learning, even on a daily basis. It is a lesson that we may learn a hundred, a thousand, a million times over, and still not understand or accept. It is a lesson that defies being learned merely cognitively or abstractly; it is a lesson that touches us deeply and daily in our most intense emotions, our most important values, our most cherished gems of wisdom, our most loved relationships, and in our most meaningful experiences. Cognitively accepting that reality is continually perishing and living like reality is continually perishing are two completely different things. The former does not guarantee the latter.

Aphorism 62

Some of us are not strong enough to accept this lesson and therefore resort to clutching ever more fervently (and desperately) to our boundaries. We regress into a kind of infantile egoism: an inordinate inflexibility and a vehement demand that reality succumb to ME, MINE, NOW, FOREVER. Instead of learning to grow, adapt, and change, we withdraw into the shell of our reality tunnels attempting to reconcile the impermanence of reality with our desire for stability.

Aphorism 63

Sustain, maintain, remain…

Aphorism 64

Stability leads to stagnation.

Aphorism 65

Rather than feeling cheated or slighted by the impermanence of reality, we should feel blessed that we have been given the privilege to experience and participate in something. Our hubris has deluded us into believing that reality will conform to our dreams, our whims, our aims, and our desires but every time we try to make reality conform to us rather than us conforming to it, we end up caught in a tragedy at worst and a comedy at best.

Aphorism 66

Diminish, perish, vanish…

Aphorism 67

“Nothing is built on stone, everything on sand. But our duty is to build as if sand were stone.” Jorge Luis Borges

Aphorism 68

Change is the only constant.

Aphorism 69

Heraclitus, the most well known defender of impermanence, was known as “the crying philosopher.” It was said that he was often shedding tears over the whims and cruelties of the world. Was Heraclitus not strong enough for his own creation?

Aphorism 70

But why be accepting of impermanence? Why not revile and vilify it? Why genuflect to the source of all of reality’s pain and sorrow? Why submit to such evil?

Aphorism 71

Impermanence is responsible for every broken relationship, every deceased loved one, every loss of physical and mental vitality, every missed opportunity, every forgotten and abandoned dream, every decayed beauty, and yet it is the one single fact of reality.

Aphorism 72

Pain, sorrow, and suffering are no fault of reality. They are our own baggage, our own adjuncts to reality. They are born out of our incorrigible inability to accept the death of everything around us. We clutch onto the vapors of the past and become walking effigies of lost things both tangible and intangible. We clutch when we should be letting go. After all, how can one receive the world with a closed fist?

Aphorism 73

Thanks to the likes of Plato, Christianity, and Descartes the intellectual scale between Being and becoming has throughout human history been typically tipped on the side of Being—surely due to all of its gravity. They all created a rift, an insuperable chasm, between what is and what should be, meanwhile ignoring that what is, is special in its own right.

Aphorism 74

Permanence exists in reality—just not in the form we wish it would. The permanence we desire resembles a kind of timeless paradise where our happiness, our dreams, and our loved ones, are frozen in place. This kind of permanence is an illusion. And boring.

Aphorism 75

Is permanence really desirable? What would an infinite paradise be like? If we could freeze things so that they never ended, would we really be happier?

Aphorism 76

Life, despite all its forms and vicissitudes, is a journey. It is a journey from the beginning, into the trials, up into the crescendo and climax, and back down to the end. It is this journey that makes any endeavor special. Every song has its final note. Every book has a last page. Every life has its last breath. Life is a journey and every journey has an end. Cut us off from the end and we miss the point of it all. And yet the endeavor is not merely to reach the end but to love, laugh, sing, and dance along the way.

Aphorism 77

Buddhists flee from life by fleeing from desire of any kind. We should engage life, embrace it for its transience, and revel in the struggle that allows us to bring out who we really are. For only in struggle and strife can a being overcome their boundaries to expand their boundaries.

Aphorism 78

“Nothing lasts. Nothing lasts. Everything is changing into something else. Nothing is wrong. Everything is on track…” Terence McKenna

Aphorism 79

Once we as finite beings can fully and deeply assimilate the idea that “nothing lasts” into the very core of our being, we can then be more playful with our boundaries. The acceptance of impermanence is the necessary precondition for moving beyond boundaries. Playfulness rather than gravity is the proper attitude towards boundaries: an attitude of gravity makes it difficult—if not impossible—to elevate one’s spirit.

Aphorism 80

Reality is something to be in awe of, not something to be demanded of. Every moment is a miracle in its own right. Each and every moment may be continually perishing, making the prospect of having anything continue on for infinity an impossibility. But what is ignored and forgotten is that each moment is eternal—each experience is unique. It is rarity and uniqueness that create meaning and value. But it is a struggle, an infinitely difficult struggle, to maintain a sense of respect and beauty for that which is fleeting and to not feel remorseful once it has left your presence. There is always a desire to do it all over again or to continue it for just a little while longer, when the reality is that you should do what you can while it is here and there will be no regrets in the end.

Aphorism 81

The reason people have such a difficult time dealing with impermanence is because they are rarely in the present moment. They are too busy being bogged down by the past or scared of the future to notice that what they have in front of them is eternal. Rather than letting the present fully disclose itself, they project aims, desires, and opinions onto it, manipulating it into some grotesque creature that is half-past, half future, and no present. Each gifted moment will come to pass and they will end up frantically reaching back to that moment that they weren’t able to appreciate while it was there. And in this way they will perpetuate the cycle of avoiding the eternal present.

Aphorism 82

“You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today.
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you.
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun.
So you run and you run to catch up with the sun but it's sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again.
The sun is the same in a relative way but you're older,
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death.” Pink Floyd, “Time,” Dark Side of the Moon

Aphorism 83

No man steps in the same river twice. Will you be the one to learn to swim and dance beneath the waterfall? Or will you be swept away and drowned by the cascade of change?

Aphorism 84

Impermanence is the stage upon which you and I can dance, sing, and create. As one experience in life gives way to the next, it would be best for us to let it go willing.

Aphorism 85

Life is a journey. It is the movement of experiences that shape us into who we are. Change is the teacher.

Aphorism 86

Even as experiences fade and slip through our fingertips like sand, they still retain an eternal quality to them. The physical forms of things perish but they continue to live on spiritually as immaterial entities: as knowledge we’ve learned; as memories we reflect on; as old laughs, and old adventures; as experiences that we value; as intangible forces of meaning and growth. Our past relationships, our deceased loved ones, our past experiences, continue to live on inside of us shaping us into who we currently are. And in this way, we may rejoice in the fleeting nature of reality because what once was still remains as a part of us. When things perish, nothing is lost and something is gained.

Aphorism 87

There is no such thing as death: only transformation.

Aphorism 88

Everything is connected. Who I am is a result of the world I live in and the experiences I’ve had. But the world and the experiences within it are also a result of who I am. We as humans are fractal-like microcosms of reality: we are a gem on Indra’s web simultaneously reflecting every other gem.

Aphorism 89

Reality is a paradox: it is precisely the fleeting nature of things that gives them their eternal value.

Aphorism 90

“Nothing lasts, but nothing is lost…” William Blake

Aphorism 91

It takes a strong spirit—one much stronger than mine—to be able to not just cognitively understand impermanence, but to spiritually live through it. These spirits are few and far between. The rest of us are mired in a tangle of conflicting emotions and desires. The inability to assimilate to a world that is constantly changing, constantly perishing, and constantly becoming something other than what it is, is the source of our need to create artificial boundaries of stability and comfort. Impermanence is the hardest thing to live with. That is why so many of us live with dualities.