STABILITY

Continues … from last week issues 22 / 01 / 11 

Do you know what it means to seek permanency? It means wanting the pleasurable to continue indefinitely, and wanting that which is not pleasurable to end as quickly as possible. We want the name that we bear to be known and to continue through family, through property. We want a sense of permanency in our relationships, in our activities, which means that we are seeking a lasting , continuous life in the stagnant pool; we don’t want any real changes there, so we have built a society which guarantees us the permanency of property , of name , of fame. 

But, you see, life is not like that at all; life is not permanent . Like the leaves that fall from a tree, all things are impermanent , nothing endures; there is always change and death. Have you ever noticed a tree standing naked against the sky, how beautiful it is ? All its branches are outlined, and in its nakedness there is a poem, there is a song. When the spring comes, it again fills the tree with the misic of many leaves, which in due season fall and are blown away; and that is the way of life.

But we don’t want anything of that kind. We cling to our children , to our tradition, to our society, to our names, and our little virtues, because we want permanency, and that is why we are afraid to die. We are afraid to lose the things we know. But life is not what we would like it to be; life is not permanent at all. Birds die; snow melts away, trees are cut down or destroyed by storms, and so on. But we want everything that gives us satisfaction to be permanent ; we want our position , the authority we have over people , to endure. We refuse to accept life as it is in fact.

The fact is that life is like the river; endlessly moving on, ever seeking , exploring, pushing , overflowing its banks, penetrating every crevice with its water. But , you see, the mind won’t allow that to happen to itself. The mind sees that it is dangerous, risky to live in a state of impermanency, insecurity, so it builds a wall around itself; the wall of tradition, of organized religion , of political and social theories. Family, name, property , the little virtues that we cultivated – these are all within the walls, away from life. Life is moving , impermanent , and it ceaselessly tries to penetrate, to break down theses walls, behind which there is confusion and misery. The gods within the walls are all false gods, and their writings and philosophies have no meaning because life is beyond them.

Now , a mind that has no walls , that is not burdened with its own acquisitions, accumulations, with its own knowledge, a mind that timeslessly, insecurely -= to such a mind , life is an extraordinary thing. Such a mind is life itself, because life has no resting place. But most of us want a resting place; we want a little house , a name , a position , and we say theses things are very important. We demand permanency and create a culture based on this demand, inventing gods which are not gods at all but merely a projection of our own desires.

Continues on next week …