Anitya
Disturbed Landscape, digital painting by Rami Schandall ©2021
For many friends, the recent year with all its upheavals was a catalyst for major changes. Many left Toronto for the East Coast, and others, the West Coast. Moves that had been considered, but not acted upon, suddenly made sense. Their new coastal homes are places that were once home to me, for more than half my life. When I see my friends' photos I have such a strong, visceral sense of where they are.
My attention is drawn most vividly to their images of the sea, the northern coastal light on an ever-changing horizon. The sea draws our human eyes and spirit, the near-far dance of water and horizon, the edge of what we can perceive. Metaphors abound. This chant from the Hatha Yoga Pradīpikā(ch. 4, v. 5) points to infinite oneness (like the wholeness of Shanti Path, from last week's letter) in sea language:
Salile saindhavam yadvat
sānyam bhajati yogatah
Tatātma manasor aikyam
samādhir abhidhī yate
Like salt in the sea
in a state of samādhi
mind merges in union
with the infinite it always was
When we have the blessing of simply being beside the sea, something restless can settle. Stéphanie said: “How funny that being by the ocean is what grounds me most. The view changes every moment.”
Small beside a quiet sea, a storming sea, gazing at the horizon, this sense arises. Perhaps it is because everything we see is moving, we can become aware of our stillness. Or, our own flowing nature rests into harmony with the endless movement of seascape. Or, as Stéphanie wondered, “Can it be that we find some measure of stillness or grounding by accepting thateverything changes?”
This is what the dharma teaches. Anitya — impermanence — is a central doctrine in Buddhism: all phenomenal, temporal things change. Or, all things with a cause are impermanent. When I think about all things changing, I can trip into worry or fear, anticipatory grief. And yet to surrender to the elemental nature of change, to be in harmony with it, is so comforting. Nature shows this, being knows this, when we let it be.
I wish you ease and comfort.
