#Impermanence

Living Wisely in a Constantly Changing Life

At its heart, Tara Brach’s reflection points to impermanence as the basic condition of human life. Our feelings rise and fall, our bodies age and heal, and even the work that structures our days shifts in ways we cannot...

Nature’s Brevity and the Wisdom of Restraint

Laozi begins with a simple observation: even nature’s fiercest displays are temporary. A whirlwind burns itself out, and a sudden downpour cannot sustain its intensity for long.

Recognizing Loss Before We Call It Letting Go

At first glance, Suzuki Roshi’s remark gently overturns a familiar self-help idea. We often imagine letting go as a difficult skill, something we must force ourselves to do through discipline or emotional effort.

Be the Sky, Not the Weather

Pema Chödrön’s line hinges on a simple but expansive metaphor: awareness is the sky, while thoughts, emotions, and circumstances are weather. The sky is vast enough to hold anything without being permanently altered by i...

Be the Sky, Not the Weather

Pema Chödrön’s line offers a simple but radical reframe: who you are is not the passing content of experience, but the spacious awareness in which experience appears. If the mind is “the sky,” then thoughts, moods, and e...

Be the Sky Behind Passing Weather

Pema Chödrön’s line begins with a simple reversal: instead of identifying with everything that happens inside you, she invites you to identify with the capacity that can hold it. The “sky” points to awareness itself—wide...

Be the Sky, Not the Weather

Pema Chödrön’s line draws a clean distinction between what we are and what we experience. If you are the sky, then thoughts, emotions, and external events are like weather systems—temporary patterns moving through a much...