Organ Mountain Zen



Thursday, October 24, 2019

Change

With palms together,
Good Morning All,
Sometimes change, a constant in our lives, is a challenge. Hell, most of the time it is. Yet, because it is a constant, it is something we must deal with.  The Buddha taught life is suffering, but only because life is change; and we resist change since we are so invested in keeping it the same.
The Buddha taught us the following:
"I am of the nature to grow old. There is no way to escape growing old.
I am of the nature to have ill health. There is no way to escape ill health.
I am of the nature to die. There is no way to escape death.
All that is dear to me and everyone I love are of the nature to change...
My actions are my only true belongings. I cannot escape the consequences of my actions... "
So, in the face of these truths how do we live?
The essential nature of these five remembrances is change. To live with change is not easy.  We must be willing to loosen the grip of our attachments to things. It is that grip that is our suffering.  Perhaps one way is to re-frame change away from loss to gift.  We we let go of one thing, another arises: closing one door allows for the opening of another and in each a change occurs.  We might call it transformative.
Change then, allows us to grow, to transform our lives into something new and different and, hopefully, better.  So, let us not fear change or deny it, but rather, let us welcome it and embrace it as a necessary aspect of the f;low of life.
Be well.
Daiho

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