Coming to grips with the fundamental nature of daily existence as being impermanent is a fundamental teaching in Buddhist mindfulness and meditation practice. This is not meant to be a depressing insight, but a freeing one. Once we truly begin to wrap our heads around the very insubstantial, impermanent nature of all those things we hope will ensure our lasting happiness—youth, wealth, constant, unrelenting pleasure-seeking and on and on and on—we begin to glimpse a path of equilibrium and freedom from the constant pursuit of ultimately passing phenomena. As a writer, purveyor, and publisher of creative works, I am constantly wrestling with my ego’s desire to see such work as of lasting significance, a hedge against my own mortality. Yet such works, too, will soon pass on by and melt away, swallowed by the river of time. Here’s a video-poem about exactly that.
~ Douglas John Imbrogno, co-facilitator, TheMeditationCircle.com