The Times They Are A-Changing

Venerable Thubten Chonyi gives a short talk and guided meditation on how to work with our mind as things around us change dramatically. Instead of resisting change or getting upset, we can turn this into an opportunity to learn about impermanence and deepen our spiritual growth.

Transcript

It's very lovely to be with you all.

And so I actually thought,

Okay,

The times they are changing.

I want to go to Nobel Prize winner Bob Dylan.

Certainly people of a certain generation will probably be able to recite with me,

Come gather around people wherever you roam and admit that the waters around you have grown and accept it that soon you'll be drenched to the bone.

And if your breath to you is worth saving,

Then you better start swimming or you'll sink like a stone for the times they are a-changin'.

So you know,

I don't actually know what year that was.

68?

Probably earlier actually.

But you know,

It was a time in the United States when we were maybe around the world we were calling for revolution,

A big time of change.

And lately if you've been following this American election cycle at all,

And I know people around the world are,

In part there's a feeling of calling for revolution again too.

That's come up on both sides of the,

I guess I could say two sides of the aisle in this conversation,

This sense of time for change,

Time for revolution.

And in some people's mind,

One candidate for the United States presidency represents a really radical change and another one candidate has been perceived and painted as more of the same.

But if we look at it from a Buddhist perspective,

One of the first things the Buddha talked to us about is to look at what is the nature of phenomena.

Everything that comes together changes.

Not just,

It's not like things arise and they hang out for a long time,

Four years,

Eight years,

12 years if we ever like that person.

It's not like that.

What in fact is happening in order for gross impermanence to be observable,

In order for us to see that an administration changes,

In order for us to see that a person dies,

In order for us to see that a plate breaks,

You know we get that big change and we're shocked.

But what the Buddha has told us is that at a much much much more subtle level that if we look at it carefully,

Things are changing moment by moment,

Nanosecond by nanosecond.

In fact disintegrating even as they arise moment by moment by moment and a continuity of course exists and that's what's giving us the thread of things going on.

But without this moment by moment by moment change,

Big changes can't take place.

So that's what I wanted us to meditate on a little bit tonight and I wanted to set that scene before we even do a sensory meditation.

So we'll do that for a few minutes and bring ourselves here and but I want you to have that in your mind as we do that and then we'll come back to talking a little bit more about this nature of impermanence and how thinking about it can be actually a relief for a mind.

Sometimes we talk about impermanence as being and it does contribute to our suffering because we claim.

But as we become more familiar with the reality,

The truth of impermanence and it helps us to cling less which brings greater peace to our minds.

So just start wherever you are,

Whatever situation you're sitting in,

In your meditation posture,

Principally making sure your back is straight,

Your spine is straight,

Feet flat or that you're settled firmly on your cushion,

Not tight but firm,

Shoulders leveled,

Hands in your lap or on your knees,

However you do it in your tradition,

Eyes lowered.

So first be aware of the sensations in your body,

Especially as you connect with the floor,

The chair,

The cushion.

And then move your attention to your breathing.

You can focus on your belly rising and falling with the breath or at the very tip of the nostrils or upper lip where you can feel the breath moving but pick one of those spots.

And that's the focus of your attention.

With this thought of impermanence in the back of your mind,

Be aware of the breath moving in the body,

Out the body.

Be aware of the changes,

Subtle or gross,

Taking place with every instant of that inhale,

Every instance of that exhale.

We'll spend just a few minutes mindfully breathing together.

You you you And then bring to mind just for a moment the image or maybe you can call up the experience of what it was like,

What your body was like when you were six years old.

First grade.

The urge to run to other memories might be there but see if you can stay focused on just the sense of having that six-year-old body.

You you Then think about it at 12.

Maybe you have a memory of looking down,

Seeing that 12-year-old body probably changing at that point.

What about your experience or image of your body at 18?

You and if you're old enough think of your body at 30.

And think of your body today.

And see if you can imagine your body at 92.

You you And think,

Now how did this happen?

It's not like I was six and then one day I was 12 and different.

It's not like I was 12 and then one day I was 30 and different or that on each birthday maybe some radical transformation happens.

I mean all of a sudden age?

No.

Moment by moment,

Breath by breath,

Heartbeat by heartbeat,

Weather,

The food we eat,

The emotional experiences we have,

Accidents,

No outer forces,

Inner forces of stress or joy that we experience all shape how this body changes moment by moment by moment.

You Nothing can actually stop that progression of change.

Any conditioned phenomena,

Meaning any phenomena that came together through causes,

Necessarily changes moment by moment by moment.

Take another moment to let that thought sink in.

Notice all the processes in your body this very moment of oxygenation,

Respiration,

Digestion,

Everything,

All the systems of the body.

Hmm so I think it's easy to see in that meditation on just how we ourselves have just our physical body we're not even talking about our mind how that changes over a period of time and we're hearing a lot of awareness of that.

You may look in the mirror in the morning and go oh my god more wrinkles but we don't really stop and think well or maybe we just put on cream and try to reverse the effect actually.

But really it's happening moment by moment by moment and that's true of every single phenomena around us.

I personally find meditating on impermanence to be extremely helpful in my life.

It is given as the major antidote to our attachment to our clinging.

Why would that work?

Because as we recognize that we're hanging on to an idea or we're hanging on to an outcome like tomorrow's election or we're hanging on to our youth or we're hanging on to a person or a career or an identity or even our favorite you know the cup we inherited from our great great aunt.

If we can keep our mind tuned to the constant changing nature of that phenomena then when it changes more grossly we're not shocked.

We're not freaked out.

We're not overwhelmed with grief to the extent that we really accept and can embody this understanding of the real nature of phenomena is impermanence.

There's a wonderful quote here from Geshe Dacpa Topgeo that I wanted to see if I can make sure I find it.

Since the very nature of phenomena is unpredictable,

Since things change at every instant moment we always experience disappointment from the mismatch of how we expect these phenomena to be and how these phenomena really are.

Does that register with you?

We always experience disappointment from the mismatch of how we expect these phenomena to be and how they really are.

This subject to change leaves room to believe that things will change sometime in the future.

But it's more precise to say that things are in a state of change constantly shifting beyond our choice and beyond our control.

That's the scary part,

Right?

Things are constantly shifting and changing beyond our choice and beyond our control.

And yet when we really meditate on these things and learn and get comfortable with that,

Then we have tremendous freedom in our minds because we're no longer clinging to the way things should be,

How I hope they will turn out,

My fear of what will happen if this happens over which I have no control.

One vote.

One vote.

It's not to say that we don't get engaged,

It's not to say that we don't actively try to influence in a way that we can and as practitioners,

As meditators,

As people who gather at the daily Dharma gathering,

We're wanting to do that with the consciousness and mindfulness and awareness,

Wanting to be of benefit to others.

And so you know we have confidence that that is an influence.

But when it comes down to absolute control,

Things change constantly,

Constantly.

And so many causes and conditions come together to create any single moment,

Any single instant.

So just to say a few more about this technically,

The great master Asanga,

Centuries and centuries and centuries ago,

Laid out a series of meditations or reflections that we can do to help us just stay accustomed to this.

And it's interesting,

I love doing these meditations,

But I find that as soon as I stop doing them regularly,

Then my this freshness about impermanence is gone from my mind.

Our habit of clinging to things as lasting a little bit is so deep.

But he suggests that we do many different,

Just different kinds of phenomena,

Just like the one we just did.

That we look at our own bodies over a period of time,

Really think and spend much more time than we did,

Thinking about the change,

The experience of life,

And concluding each reflection with how marvelous is the phenomena of impermanence.

How marvelous is the phenomena of impermanence.

So we do that with internal objects,

We do that with our thoughts,

You know,

Just to take an entertaining and illuminating meditation to go from what was my mind at six years old.

Oh,

Is my mind at 12,

At 18,

At 24,

At whatever.

How interesting,

How marvelous is the phenomena of change.

Well,

Personally you get quite grateful for the aging process,

If you think about that one.

So we do these inner things,

The inner objects,

And then we also look at the external objects.

Think of your hometown,

How it's changed over a period of time.

Think of how natural environments,

Forests,

Or I was just in the Blue Ridge mountains of North Carolina to think about how that changes over time.

It's the kind of reflection that you can do almost anywhere,

Anytime.

So just look,

Wow,

How this has changed moment by moment by moment.

Look at my lunch,

How that has changed from the time I put it in my bowl,

Consumed it,

And we know where it will be tomorrow.

This is a phenomenon of constant change,

And also helps us get familiar with it so that we have big,

Well,

Big events in our lives.

Our capacity to hold it in a bigger space is increased.

And of course the more we recognize and understand this nature of impermanence,

The more it feeds our understanding of the interdependence of things,

The more actually it deepens our wisdom as well.

Reviews

Very helpful anytime. So appropriate for 2020

I would never have expected a song to be the subject of such a profound meditation on impermanence ! Thank you 😊

Whereas tomorrow is not a voting election...we still have a vote for lifr

Thank you for a very empowering meditation 🙏

Incremental change, impermanence, acceptance - Thank you for shedding light on this at this timely moment.