Impermanence and Divine Nature
Wednesday June 3, 2009
Hello, this is T. Thorn Coyle, stepping in for Gus today. One of the things I do in life is act as a spiritual director. Recently, one of my clients was talking about a struggle with the fact that...
Add to Del.icio.us
Add to Technorati
Add to Digg
Add to Newsvine
Add to Facebook
Add to StumbleUpon
Advertisement
Advertisement
Search This Blog
Subscribe
About A Pagan's Blog
Gus diZerega is a political scientist/theorist with a PhD from the University of California at Berkeley. While living and working as an artist and craftsperson to finance his degree, he met and later studied with teachers in NeoPaganism, the earth religions more generally, and shamanic healing.
Read Gus’ Academic Articles:
More on Paganism
Beliefnet's Pagan section offers quotes, articles, and videos on pagan religions.
Recent Posts
Favorite Sites
PaganWitchVox
Wild Hunt
Echidne of the Snakes
Hecate
Labryinth Poems
Shamans Drum Magazine
Covenant of the Goddess
Green Egg 'zine
Interfaith
United Religions Initiative
Parliament of World Religions
General News
Schwarz Report
Huffington Post
Academic Insights
The Reality Based Comunity
Obsidian Wings
Political Analysis
Glenn Greenwald
Media Matters
Balloon Juice
Rightwing-watch
Orcinus
Hullabaloo
Americans United for Separation of Church and State
Ecology
Ecostery Foundation
The Trumpeter
Suzuki Foundation
The Wildlands Network
Foundation for Research
Top Features
Tag Cloud
abortion, books, christian right, conservatism, creativity, current affairs, current events, ecology, empathy, environment, evil, interfaith, nature, Nature, Pagan, pagan culture, Pagan culture, pagan holidays and sabbats, pagan news, pagan rituals and festivals, pagan spirituality, Pagan spirituality, personal, politics, religious right, right wing evil, science and technology, social and political theory, spirituality, torture
Recent Comments
- clasqm commented on Polytheism and Monism: A few obse
- Cully commented on Polytheism and Monism: "Spiritual
- Hecate Demetersdatter commented on Polytheism and Monism: Is there o
- Hathor commented on Polytheism and Monism: "Ultimate
- kenneth commented on Polytheism and Monism: This is on
- Cheryl Hill commented on Back in Business: Wonderful
- phillip madsen commented on Back in Business: I feel for
- discount uggs commented on Yawwn: Towering g
- r4i commented on Something nice for this morning: That was h
- Deborah commented on Real Christians - A Pagan Perspective: When I was
Very true! and very nice. Thank You.
Wow, What a nice way of putting thoughts on Impermanence...
I agree and when I read this... there is sense of love for this life.. and it does not matter how it is... the courage to accept these changes .... only we need..
May the One who is invisible take care of us...
Regards,
Raman
Welcome Thorn; thank you for spending some time with us.
I think the fear of change is strongest when things are going well and you don't WANT them to change. "If it ain't broke don't fix it" - or change it. But when things are going not-so-well, the thought of change isn't so scary because you don't like the current situation. An election was won on the platform of Change (thank the Gods!).
The strength for people who work with Magick is that we can have a hand in directing that change. We aren't just floating downstream with no way to affect our course. Change is inevitable and constant - aging is a good example - still we can change HOW we age by how well we take care of ourselves.
I'm a Taurus and no one has more trouble dealing with change than those in that sign. Yet over time I've learned to deal with it - direct it when I can, roll with it when I can't.
And I remember what my Mom used to tell me and I'm sure you've all heard the saying, "If nothing ever changed there would be no butterflies".
So true. Once when I was in a tough position one of my magic mentors told me to walk in the rain by running water. The idea was that the running water carried away the old while rain brought in the new. It was a wonderful way to allow change into my life peacefully.
It's taken me a long time to develop some sort of peace with change.
Not wanting things to change does stem from fear of the unknown. What I have to remind myself is that change isn't always for the worse, but even if it is, it could become something better. The universe ebbs and flows that way.
A beautiful column; change is a difficult truth for people, including myself, to fully realize. I’d like to suggest another reason why it is difficult, other than the one you mentioned about the resistance of the ego. The normal, everyday appearance of the world seems to be a world of stability. For example, the desk I am writing this on appears to be the same desk that I saw yesterday, and the day before, and, I suspect, will be here tomorrow. I understand conceptually that the desk is changing, that it is a dynamic process, but I do not perceive that change directly. I have to infer that it is changing and inference is weaker than perception. For this reason I think that the difficulty of comprehending the pervasiveness of change is due, at least in part, to our ordinary perceptions of the world which are, in a sense, too coarse to perceive how dynamic existence is. The exercise you gave on the plant is a wonderful antidote to this coarseness. There are others: contemplate a flowing river, contemplate a candle flame until the candle is extinguished (use a small candle), contemplate the sounds of nature as they arise and disappear.
Thanks again for a wonderful column.
Nice commentary, Thorn. I sometimes have wondered if I'm ib small minority in having the perspective of impermanence, admittedly hearing it mostly from Buddhist and Buddhist-influenced philosophies. It's good to hear it coming from a Pagan!
Some Pagans give me the impression that they view the Gods are as a the permanent processes of the universe. Can't say I'm cursing those people, I just disagree with it.
Coincidentally, I was watching a rerun of "Angel" just yesterday and some dialogue (spoken by The Host) struck me so much I wrote it down:
"It's like a song. I can hold a note for a long time. Eventually that's just noise. It's the change we listening for. The note coming after and after that. That's what makes it music."
Tess that's beautiful. Change: The music of the Cosmos.
Of course I have to do my best to be the Conductor of my little piece of it!
All true, and it occurs to me that some of those Other Religions (like the ones many of us were raised with) teach that the physical world is impermanent and changing, but the spirit ("real") world is unchanging and deathless. I always had a problem with that; MY spirit never felt unchanging!
Wonderful post, Thorn - Thank you.
"one of my clients was talking about a struggle with the fact that things change. S/he wanted something to remain inviolate, permanent. When I responded that everything is in a state of change, that the universe is always in process, that the Gods are in process, that God Herself, the Limitless Divine, is in process, s/he replied, 'Yes, I know you say that. But I have a hard time believing it'."
Interesting that your client used the term "believe" when actually they have a hard time "accepting" change. I like what Tess shared with us - if nothing changes then it's just noise but when change comes it is growth... "The music of the Cosmos" - Thank you Cheryl!!
Blessings!
Responding to several comments on this thread, one of those with the clearest understanding of impermanence and the presence of the ultimate as impermanence was Dogen, founder of Soto Zen in Japan. In an essay on Buddha Nature he wrote, "Impermanence is Buddha Nature." That single sentence has opened many doors of understanding for me.
Post a Comment
By submitting these comments, I agree to the beliefnet.com terms of service, rules of conduct and privacy policy (the "agreements"). I understand and agree that any content I post is licensed to beliefnet.com and may be used by beliefnet.com in accordance with the agreements.