The Gift of Uncertainty

What Impermanence can Teach Us
About the Preciousness of Life

 

Clearly, we are living through uncertain times.

Things seem to be changing so radically and so fast that, unless we are aware of what is going on, we might experience a sense of instability that may have a profound impact on the way we feel both emotionally and physically.

In this transition to unpredictability, there is one practice that has been at the center of my wellbeing. And I would like to share it with you.

When we become aware of the fact that the nature of things is impermanence, our appreciation, our gratitude and our capacity to value what we have when we have it right here, right now, increases exponentially.

Like nothing else, impermanence can teach us how to treasure every aspect of life, and how to live fully.

Let’s not wait. Life is as fragile as a sandcastle. Everything as we know it may change in the blink of an eye. In the face of impermanence, only love can exist, casting away anger, resentment, and even worry.

The passage below, which I adapted from Who Dies?: An Investigation of Conscious Living and Conscious Dying by Stephen and Ondrea Levin, tells us about the intrinsic wisdom in the impermanent nature of all things.

Once, someone asked a well-known Thai meditation master, “In this world where everything changes, where nothing remains the same, where loss and grief are inherent in our very coming into existence, how can there be any happiness? How can we find security when we see that we can’t count on anything being the way we want it to be?”

The teacher, looking compassionately at this fellow, held up a drinking glass and said, “You see this goblet? For me this glass is already broken. I enjoy it. I drink out of it. It holds my water admirably, sometimes even reflecting the sun in beautiful patterns.

If I should tap it, it has a lovely ring to it. But when I put this glass on a shelf and the wind knocks it over, or my elbow brushes it off the table and it falls to the ground and shatters, I say, ‘Of course.’

When I understand that this glass is already broken, every moment with it is precious. Every moment is just as it is, and nothing needs to be otherwise.”

What is this Story Revealing?

When we recognize that, just like the glass, our body is also impermanent; when we understand that indeed we are in constant flux, then Life becomes precious, and we open to it just as it is.

When we understand that that our time on earth is short, our children, our partners, our friends become precious. Pema Chodron, the beloved Buddhist nun says, since death is certain and the time of death is uncertain, what is the most important thing? When you live your life aware of this fact, Life takes on new meaning. Each moment becomes a whole lifetime, a universe unto itself.

When we bring consciousness to our mortality, our priorities change. Our heart opens, and our mind begins to clear of the fog of old holdings and pretending. We watch all life in transit, and what matters becomes instantly apparent: the transmission of love; the letting go of obstacles to understanding, the relinquishment of our grasping, of our hiding from ourselves.

Seeing the mercilessness of our self-judgement, we become more gentle with ourselves and with others.

If we take each teaching, each loss, each gain, each fear, each joy as it arises and experience them fully, life becomes workable. We are no longer victims and, instead, every experience becomes another opportunity for learning and appreciation.

If our only spiritual practice were to remember how ephemeral our lives are on this earth,  relating to all we meet, to all we do, as though it were our final moments in the world, what time would there be for old games or pretense or posturing?

If we remembered what a short time we have with each other, we would forgive faster, and love longer.