Live In Grace

Change Is Continuous ...

Day by day, one season slips into the next. Day turns into night and night to day. Buildings don’t suddenly grow old; rather, second by second, from the moment they’re constructed, they begin to deteriorate…

Think of beings inhabiting this universe. How many people born a hundred years ago are still alive?…

We see the play of impermanence in our relationships as well. How many of our family members, friends, people in our hometown, have died? How many have moved away, disappearing from our lives forever?…

At one time we felt happy just being near a person we loved. Just to hold that person’s hand made us feel wonderful. Now maybe we can’t stand him, don’t want to know anything about him. Whatever comes together must fall apart, whatever once fathered must separate, whatever was born must die. Continual change, relentless change, is constant in our world.

In Vedanta, the ultimate hero is Atman (the true, divine Self) mastering the ego. The true unseen enemies are the Arishadvargas—the six internal foes of the mind: desire (Kama), anger (Krodha), greed (Lobha), delusion (Moha), pride (Mada), and jealousy (Matsarya).

Vedanta explains that the greatest battle is the internal war against ignorance (Avidya) and ego, which cloud human consciousness.

The Mind as Friend or Foe: The Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 6, Verse 6) notes that for him who has conquered the mind, the mind is the best of friends, but for one who has failed to do so, his mind will remain the greatest enemy.

The Root of Suffering: Vedanta teaches that reacting to the world with emotional turbulence—driven by these inner enemies—creates a persistent state of bondage and suffering.

This wisdom is most famously detailed in the Heart Sutra, which states that "form is emptiness, and emptiness is form". To "understand the nature of form" is to realize that the boundary between "me" and "not-me" is just a mental construction.