All Things Must Pass

Dear Friend,

I hope you had a nice holiday time and a smooth transition into the new year. The dog days of winter are great for indoor activities, I am putting our there some offers for filling the cold days with some yoga deep dives and explorations, hope you find some use in them. As always, if money is an issue all you have to do it just let me know, I would never allow money to be an obstacle to anyone’s genuine interest in practicing and deepening their yoga experience. Some of these offers are donation based anyway, which means that you can pay as you like (or can), and zero is as valid as any other sum.

A recurring theme in most teachings originated in the East is the emphasis on the fact that everything keeps on changing, continuously, and waking up to it as the key for spiritual liberation. In the Theravada Buddhist tradition it is referred to as annica (which means ‘changing’ in the Pali language). Other traditions, such as yoga, put less emphasis on that as a major path of inquiry, however the importance of aligning ones self with this truth is often acknowledged.

George Harrison wrote an entire album in 1970 called All Things Must Pass, his first solo album after the Beatles broke up which was a massive creative outburst that was bubbling inside him and needed outlet. During the time of writing these songs, Harrison was heavily influenced by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, a spiritual teacher based in Rishikesh (India) who has been teaching a variation of yoga that later became known as Transcendental Meditation. The title of Harrison’s Album and song by that name reflect that essential part of the teachings, the teaching on impermanence, other songs deal with other significant authentic spiritual themes. I have to confess that I consider this triple Album a masterpiece, a work of beauty and grace, one of my all time favorites!

One needs not do an extensive research to know that everything is in a constant state of transformation and decay, we can simply see it everywhere we look even in cases of incredibly slow changing objects such as mountains or oceans. We all know this to be true, however for many of us the most difficult changes to accept or even notice have to do with our own selves, particularly our body. I think many people in their 40s or 50s, like me, can recall that moment of looking in the mirror one day and surprisingly realizing they have gotten older. The fact of the matter is that we have all been aging every second of every day, we just didn’t pay attention to it.

The truth of impermanence applies to contemplative practices such as yoga or others when we realize it in the context of our own inner workings. It is much less helpful to embrace it it in the context of the world around us or any other objective dimension of reality, though it can lead to some positive change of perspective. When we directly and mindfully experience this phenomena as it manifests in our body, breath, and most importantly our mind, we start to feel a deeper shift in how we relate to every moment of living. All we need to do is simply direct our awareness to the changing quality of any experience we have, whether feeling it in our body, or with sounds and sights, or any other texture of cognitive function. When we can notice this at the level of thoughts, emotions, or other mental activities, this internal shift starts to have a significantly more potent transformational impact.

There seems to be some universal patterns of human nature, one of which is our ingrained tendency to prefer pleasant or desirable experiences and reject or resist unpleasant, undesirable ones. We also tend to lose interest in anything that is neither of the above and then generate mental experiences that stimulate one of these two responses. This obviously makes a lot of sense, why would we not want more of what we like and less of what we don’t? The problem is that these forces continuously affect our every waking or sleeping moment, not only by coloring and filtering every experience but also by creating a general state of tension or contraction that is the product of disharmony or resistance to the present moment as it actually is. On a deeper level, we are living a disconnected life, completely detached from what is really happening and lost in the self-manufactured content of our conditioned perception.

This diagnosis is at the heart of most teachings coming from ancient India, mainly Buddhism and Yoga, but you should definitely not take it at face value and do your own self-inquiry through meditative contemplation to see if it is the case, how these tendencies are actually affecting you. Knowing this intellectually from reading or hearing about it will not have any meaningful effect.

A common pitfall for those who initially come across these teachings is an instinctive nihilistic reaction. If nothing lasts than what’s the point of doing anything at all? Why would we even want to make an effort, try and accomplish things, maintain and nourish relationships or fulfilling endeavors, why even get up in the morning?? This way of responding is probably coming from the rationalizing part of the conditioned mind which is recognizing a potential threat to its habitual tendencies and trying to battle for their survival, however it could also be a helpful defense mechanism. The suggestion here is to pay closer and closer attention to the source of these reactive thoughts and opinions, look where their coming from and what purpose they are there to serve.

From my experience, what is actually happening when we fully embrace and embody the wisdom of annica, the truth of impermanence, is the exact opposite of that!

When we realize with every cell of our body that things come and go, arise and pass away, constantly transition from one thing to another — we let go of the urge to identify or hold on to what we like and push away what we don’t. The tension of this push and pull that we are always entangled with starts to dissolve and a very pure and primal appreciation of every waking moment emerges and continues to fill every corner of our being. When we carry deep in our hearts the sincere realization that things don’t last, we naturally lose interest in holding on or pushing away, and we simply enjoy the fullness and richness of every moment with a profound sense of ease and lightness.

This transformation does not happen over night, it tends to gradually deepen as we carry on with a genuine practice, particularly when we simply sit in meditation, open and connect awareness to every moment of being. In addition to that, through occasional contemplation or repeatedly reminding ourselves that everything will pass, every thought, emotion, mood, or felt-body experience, nothing is permanent or everlasting, we can start to create this shift on a more surface level which can have worthwhile benefits and support the more direct core level shift.

I would recommend to start easy, when something happens that rubs us the wrong way, like the weather or the train coming late, we can remind ourselves that this too shall pass, our feelings about it will go away, and see where it takes us. We can then expand it to uncomfortable feelings in our body, maybe pain somewhere, or lack of sleep, or being sick, reminding ourselves that all similar experiences we ever had in the past have disappeared at some point, and then see if it changes our relationship to them. A bit more difficult but very beneficial is contemplating this during situation that we enjoy and take pleasure in, maybe eating something that we really like, or doing our favorite activity, or simply having a wonderful day. Can we actually enjoy these things more when we let go of the undercurrent desire for them to continue, to repeat, to last?

The final and most difficult stage would be contemplating our own finite existence and that of our loved ones. This can be quite challenging and so I would suggest leaving it aside until we get established in our practice and sincerely ready to take that in.

May we all grow in harmony with the constant changing and flowing flux of undercurrent inner states while we engage with our external environment, wisely choosing to take proper courses of action, appropriate reactions, and setting healthy boundaries when needed.

If you find yourself curious about these kinds of topics - join a workshop, a retreat, or any other event on offer.

Looking forward to sharing yoga with you in January & February.

Wishing everyone peace and happiness,

Oren

♡

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