So this is an introduction to the change or impermanence meditation.
In general change happens on two different levels.
There's the obvious change which happens,
Things like the breaking of a glass,
The knocking down of a house,
The death of somebody,
Or sound which comes and goes.
These are things we can know with our senses.
And these are generally put into the category of more major or gross type of change.
The other type of change is more subtle.
It's the fact that everything around us,
Everything in the universe is changing moment to moment.
Things which appear to be solid,
Tables,
Chairs,
Beaches,
Mountains,
All these things appear solid and appear unchanging but the underlying reality of these things is that they're changing moment to moment.
But nothing actually stays the same.
Even for one moment when we get down to the atomic and molecular level of all phenomena they're constantly in movement,
Constantly changing.
So we will look at more gross types of change in other meditations,
Particularly on death.
But in this particular meditation we're focusing on that subtle nature of change.
And what we're doing is analyzing that.
It's an analytical meditation which means we're analyzing,
We're considering,
We're coming to a conclusion about that.
And when we get to that conclusion then we focus,
We use our calm abiding mind to focus on that conclusion.
So in this instance the conclusion we're coming to is that everything is changing moment to moment,
Our bodies,
The world around us,
Our minds,
Everything is in a constant state of flux and we're trying to internalize and understand and bring in that recognition into our own minds.
And why is that important?
And the first reason it's important is because it fits with reality.
It's completely unreal to think that things don't change.
It's against the very nature of things to believe that they stay the same,
That they will maintain and they will persist through time.
The reality is that everything changes moment to moment.
The second and the really more important reason why this is useful to internalize is because the attitude which most of us have which holds on to things is not changing,
That our bodies don't change,
Our life doesn't change,
Our car won't change,
Our house doesn't change,
The world around us,
The people,
Et cetera,
Won't change is causing us incredible mental suffering.
And it's very ironic that we actually do that to try and be secure.
We hold on to things as being the same.
We don't want our bodies to get old.
We don't want our family to change.
We don't want our house to go wrong or our car to go wrong.
We hold on to things as not changing.
In an attempt to be secure.
But what that does is the very opposite because the nature of things is that they change all the time.
Instead of becoming secure that belief that things don't change makes us more insecure because it's going against reality.
It's going against the actual nature of things.
And therefore on a daily basis we're presented with the very opposite from what we're trying to hold on to.
It is the very opposite from being stable and persisting and long lasting.
Therefore instead of bringing security it brings apprehension,
Anxiety and insecurity.
If we really wish to be secure and we wish to be controlling whatever our lives and our reality the only way to do that is to go with the nature of change,
Is to be the change,
Is to internalize that fundamental truth that everything is changing all the time,
Our bodies,
The world around us,
Our minds,
Everything is in a constant state of change.
And if we can internalize that understanding then we become secure because then nothing fazes us,
Nothing surprises us.
Then we're fitting with reality.
And this meditation is one that if you do it regularly for a week or a couple of weeks the effect upon the mind is very dramatic.
We very quickly change that mental attitude,
Holding on to things is not changing and begin to understand the nature of this change.
So it's a very effective,
A very powerful meditation to bring more security,
To let go in our lives,
To go with the flow rather than continually resisting the flow which is always going to cause a problem.
That's when we resist or we build a dam or we build an obstacle in the way of flowing water it causes resistance and problems.
In the same way by resisting the nature of change,
By resisting the reality of change we cause ourselves suffering and problems.
Going with the change,
Being the change,
Going with the flow creates much more mental happiness.
So the meditation on this will follow.
