Three Characteristics: Change

This is the first talk on the three characteristics that are said to characterize all experiences. The first is the characteristic of being in-constant, being impermanent, being changeable. The second characteristic is that everything that we encounter, everything we meet, inside ourselves and outside ourselves is understood as unreliable.
And the third characteristic is that everything that you encounter that you personalize as yourself doesn't qualify as being the true you.

Transcript

It's lovely to sit with you.

Thank you for your practice.

So in these next three weeks I'm going to offer what are some core insights of the Insight Meditation.

And these are the three characteristics that are said to characterize all our experiences.

So all the things that we encounter,

They all have the characteristic of being inconstant,

Of being impermanent,

Of changing.

This is the first characteristic that we'll talk about today.

The second characteristic is that everything that we encounter,

Everything that we meet inside ourselves,

Outside of ourselves is characterized by a Buddhist word called Dukkha,

Which has a wide variety of meanings in different contexts.

But for this purpose,

It's probably understood as unreliable.

So all of our experiences are characterized by this unreliability.

Everything you encounter is unreliable in some particular way.

And the third characteristic is that everything that you encounter,

That you personalize as yourself in some way,

Doesn't qualify as being the essentially true you.

As mindfulness grows stronger,

We begin to understand that we are not the body.

We are not the thoughts that arise.

We are not the emotions that are felt.

We begin to see the whole idea of self as a mental construct.

So these are called the three characteristics.

The characteristics of impermanence,

The characteristic of unreliability,

And the characteristic of what's called not self.

And what's important to understand is that these three characteristics,

They characterize our experience.

So there's something that we learn to see,

We start to see them and tune into them.

It's not really something that we have to believe.

It's not like you have to believe any of this really.

Rather,

It's something that we start to notice.

And it's useful to notice in our experience,

To notice that things are always changing,

To notice that things are unreliable,

And that they have this quality that they're not me.

It's not me.

This restlessness,

This boredom is not me.

It's just happening.

Our lives can be a lot easier if you,

To live if you kind of keep these things in mind and notice them occurring.

So today,

I'd like to talk about the first one,

Which in the Pali,

In the language of the Buddhist teachings,

Is called Anicca.

Anicca.

And it's usually translated in English as impermanence.

And it's not unique,

You know,

In Buddhism to emphasize impermanence.

Some of us here even remember like the old Greek philosopher Heraclitus,

Who said that you can't step into the same river twice,

Which is a teaching about how this life that we live is like a stream.

It's always changing,

Always changing.

So one of the things that I think is often true about the changing nature of our lives is change can bring with it a sense of loss,

Experiences of loss.

That's what often comes up first when we think about impermanence,

That we lose what we cherish,

Our abilities,

The people that we love,

The things that we build up and create,

That sooner or later,

Many things are lost and change.

And some things are unpredictable when it comes to when we're going to lose them.

But also sometimes we celebrate change.

When flowers of spring come forth,

When a child is born.

And even though we kind of know but not with like a strong recognition that with birth comes death,

It's kind of inherent.

Anything that's born will die.

It's not a crime.

It's not unnatural that it happens.

The flowers come and go.

There's so much change and some of it we celebrate.

And some of it we grieve.

So impermanence,

Sometimes I think we do a disservice by emphasizing impermanence because some people have so much stability or so little,

I'm sorry,

So little stability in their life that it gives them no hope.

So part of this practice is to cultivate stability.

You know,

We don't cultivate the experience of impermanence.

What we cultivate is the practice of stability.

So,

Part of this teaching on the three characteristics,

What I'm going to offer is the cultivation of their opposites.

So we cultivate stability,

Which is the opposite of impermanence.

We cultivate reliability and well-being as the opposite to unreliability,

To dukkha.

And we cultivate self-confidence as the opposite to the insight of not-self.

So a sense of confidence.

So stability works together as a partner with the insight into impermanence.

When I think of stability,

The image that often comes to mind is of the majestic redwoods that I lived under for many years.

I love those trees.

They've been standing for hundreds of years.

They're so strong and dignified,

Just there,

You know,

Rooted,

Stable.

Sometimes for some people,

The image for meditation is to make the body like a mountain,

Solid and strong.

And meditation practice is meant to cultivate stability,

A stable mind,

A stable heart,

A stable body.

And if the mind is agitated and restless and kind of spinning around,

It's very hard to have kind of a deep understanding of what's going on because it's just spinning.

So we keep on stabilizing in the breath,

Kind of creating this sort of provisional permanence so that we can see into the nature of impermanence.

There's the paradox,

Right?

So for our practice,

Meditation is really what helps create stability,

The steadiness of the mind.

And there's also the stability or the constancy of regularity.

So regularity is really important.

A regular and regular practice is important.

When I started Roaring Fork Insight in 2016,

It was with the idea that a teacher's constancy is very important for a group of people,

A community to support their ongoing practice.

And so I made a commitment to keep showing up because of this idea that the constancy of a teacher creates stability that allows for the community to be supported and to continue practicing.

So we have a constant place of practice.

I think it's very helpful for people who are practicing to have a place to go,

To keep showing up for.

So somehow,

Either through meditation practice or other conditions,

We try to create physical and mental stability,

Stability in our life.

Having a job or healthy relationships that can create stability.

Sometimes having a really orderly life,

Not a lot of chaos that creates stability.

Making your bed every day creates a little stability,

A clean house.

And stability has something to do with relaxing.

Learning to sort of relax and soften,

To let go of the stresses.

It's sort of like this zooming out.

Our whole system,

It works better when there's no stress.

It allows the body to work better.

To create a physical stability in our posture when we sit is very useful.

To sit upright or to lie down in a way where the spine is fully extended.

So that we learn to relax and there's a sort of combination of strength and relaxation happening together.

And then there's mental stability.

That's one of the benefits of the concentration practice.

When we can really just stay with the in-breath and the out-breath to still the mind and make it stable so that it's not jumping around.

It's possible,

Even in just a 30 minute sit,

To stabilize the mind so it's no longer like choppy waters in a storm.

But it's more just gentle waves.

So we learn to let go of our thoughts and stay with our breath a while.

And just steady ourselves,

Steady ourselves.

And one of the ways to steady an agitated mind,

Which in the middle of the day,

You know,

There's a lot going on for many of us.

So the mind is stirred and what our practice is,

Is just to not react to it.

Not to judge it,

But just hold it into our awareness.

We could sit for 30 minutes with an agitated mind,

Certainly.

Just give it lots of room.

Like,

Ah,

Busy,

Busy knowing that it's there.

And when there's clear knowing of it,

Maybe you're not so stirred.

You know,

If you keep stirring a muddy pond,

The water doesn't settle.

But if you stop stirring,

It settles.

So there is something to holding our busy minds.

Just letting it be,

Naming it.

Just holding it in awareness and not reacting.

You might see that lets up a little bit.

And that actually supports this truth of impermanence.

You see that,

Oh,

Look at that,

It changed.

When we truly are experiencing the truth of change,

What happens is that our hearts and our minds,

They relax a lot.

We kind of let go of the struggle.

And we can see this clearly with our changing bodies,

You know.

If we're attached to our body staying the same,

Staying a certain way,

We're going to suffer.

And it will change.

It's just the nature of the body.

These changes are inevitable.

And that they're taking place,

They're not a mistake.

And it's not uncommon that you know,

As our life is going along smoothly,

And then something happens,

And on some level,

There's this thought,

Like,

What did I do that this is happening?

Why me?

If I were only a little bit more on top of things,

This would not have happened.

I should have been like eating right.

Or exercising more.

But the reality is,

We haven't done anything wrong.

It's just simply the nature of the way things are.

The nature of the body.

The nature of the mind.

The nature of everything in the world is to change.

This is what happens to everyone and everything.

So we stabilize our practice,

Our bodies,

Our minds,

In the simplicity of just sitting still.

Regularly sitting still.

And if you don't like the changes,

I don't like this.

Noting that.

Not liking.

I'm going to close with a poem by the poet Dana Faulds,

Called Allow.

There is no controlling life.

Try corralling a lightning bolt containing a tornado.

Damn a stream and it will create a new channel.

Resist and the tide will sweep you off your feet.

Allow and grace will carry you to higher ground.

The only safety lies in letting it all in.

The wild and the weak.

Fear,

Fantasies,

Failures and successes.

When loss rips off the doors of the heart or sadness veils your vision with despair,

Practice becomes simply bearing the truth.

In the choice to let go of your known way of being,

The whole world is revealed to your new eyes.

So thank you for your kind attention this morning,

This afternoon.

I'll open it up now for comments or questions.

Reviews

💓🙏

A very calming, helpful talk about being human. 💛

Superb as always, Lisa. And beautiful poem. Thank you 🌟