On a mental and emotional level, you, me, and other people are always changing.
Permanence and independence is a way of defining ourselves, other people, places, objects, even thoughts and emotions as self-existing, self-contained things in themselves
- On a very subtle level, we cling to the idea of permanence
- A belief that an essential core of “me,” “others,” and so on remains constant through time.
- The “me” I was yesterday is the same “me” I am today.
- The same table or book we saw yesterday is the same table or book we see today.
Even our emotions sometimes seem permanent.
- “I was angry at my boss yesterday, I am angry at him today, and I will be angry at him tomorrow; I’ll never forgive him.”
The Buddha compared this delusion to climbing a tree that looks strong and whole on the outside, but is hollow and rotten on the inside.
- The higher we climb, the more tightly we cling to the lifeless branches, and the more likely it is that one of those branches will break.
- Eventually, we must fall. And the pain of that fall will be greater the more higher we climb.
Re-source: Relative
We can see from our own experience that independence is an illusion.
- Are we the pain or illness that we are experiencing?
If we examine people, places and objects around us, we can recognize that none of them are inherently independent, but made up of a number of interrelated parts, causes and conditions.
- A chair for instance, has to have legs and a kind of base on which to sit. Take away the legs and the seat, and it wouldn’t be a chair, but a few pieces of wood, plastic, metal, etc. that it is made of.
- And this material like parts of our bodies is made up of molecules, atoms, subatomic particles, etc. Someone had to cut down a tree, so even a simple object like a chair isn’t an inherently existing thing in itself, but rather emerges from a combination of causes and conditions.
Even thoughts, feelings, and sensations aren’t things in themselves, but occur through a variety of causes and conditions.
- Anger or frustration might be traced back to a sleepless night, an argument, or pressure to meet and deadline.
Our thoughts, emotions, and sensations are like waves rising and falling in an endless ocean of infinite possibility.
- The problem is that we have become used to seeing all of the waves, and mistaking them for the ocean.
- Each time we look at the waves though, we become a little more aware of the ocean, and as that happens, our focus begins to shift.
- We begin to identify with the ocean, rather than the waves.
- Watching them rise and fall without affecting the nature of the ocean itself.
- But that can only happen if we begin to look.
craving and resource from “Joyful Wisdom”
