Transience.
It implies a quality which is not meant to last. Its synonymous with impermanence. If you've ever observed a sunset, a sunrise, a full moon, a cool breeze on a hot summer day, you've experienced something quite enriching, quite peaceful perhaps, beautiful, nurturing, timeless. Compare this positive feeling with a moment you've received an outstanding compliment from your boss on the last project completed, a compliment on your hair from a cute person working the coffee shop counter, the feeling of seeing a 98 on your final exam. They both stimulate an arising of feelings from within. They both feel seemingly positive, nurturing, fortifying. Yet, they are both transient feelings. They do not last. They are impermanent.
Does one feel more fleeting than the other? Less pure perhaps? Riddled with a desire to prolong it, to repeat it, to hold on to it, to wish for it to stay indefinitely? Have you ever found yourself replaying, reliving one moment in your head over and over? A smile originating from within, from your own heart and nothing else compared to that smile forming out of a reaction to something outside of you?
That cute girl, cute boy across the counter. You smile. A reflection to them. A reaction from you. A cause. An effect. A feeding to them. A giving from you. A giving from them. A feeding to you. You're hungry. So are they. Who wants more? I do. You do. They do. We do.
That sunrise. You smile. A reflection to whom? To no one. No one is there. Nature. Your smile fades from the face yet stays imprinted on your heart. No one to reflect to. It is just you. Alone. Communing with Nature, with yourself. That smile is yours, from yours, to yours.
Every moment, every attachment, every emotion, every sensation, every phenomena, every feeling. Joy, sorry, pain, pleasure, excitement, love, longing, lust, desire, vulnerability, hurt, shame, apathy, anxiety, exhaustion.
Transient states. Human phenomena.
We are living in a transient world. All of the waking life is surrounded by constant transience, constant change. Nothing is unchanging. Everything is changing. The moment we conceive of one thought, one idea, one word, another exists. What appears unchanging is merely a reflection of our mind desiring, willing, yearning, hoping to understand, to know, and stay understanding, stay knowing. To become, "all" knowing.
There is no such thing. We are ever-changing. Every cell, atom, every deed. Realising the truth behind impermanence was and is continually the most grounding, connecting, truthful revelation I have ever conceived of. The truth was always there. I worked diligently to uncover it from beneath layers of deception. Piece by piece. Layer by layer. Uncover every lie, every fairytale, every old story through endless, persistent, penetrating observation and attention.
Awareness is your weapon. See. Through the lies, the patterns, the falseness. Beneath it all is a never-ending source of peace, joy. And one can't help but smile.
