Constant Change

“You are under no obligation to be the same person you were five minutes ago“

– Alan Watts

Are you standing still? If not, take a moment as you are reading this to stand stock still and consider that whatever solid surface you are standing or sitting on is actually spinning eastwards at something like 1,700 kilometres, or 1,000 miles, per hour, a bit less the further north or south of the equator you are, That is just the rotation of the earth on its axis which gives us our day and night sequence. At the same time the whole planet is orbiting around the sun at about 107,000 kilometres, or 67,00 miles, per hour. In turn the sun is orbiting around “our” constellation, the Milky Way, on its own orbit at about 238 kilometres per second. Phenomenal numbers that are hard to grasp, yet we think we are standing still! We are in a different point in space than we were a second ago.

On this constantly moving planet we look at solid mountains for reassurance but they are all probably going through a process of gradual erosion over many years. Even our bodies are undergoing constant change many of which we notice with ageing but parts of our bodies are being replaced continually.

As the Buddhists say, this is the way of impermanence, or constant change.

The quote above though prompted me to think about this another way, our mind with opinions and beliefs embedded in. As Alan Watts says, we are under no obligation to be the same person you were five minutes ago. Think about what you are doing or thinking and every now and then question it. Does this action or attitude serve me well now? It may have done some time before but is it still appropriate now? Be prepared to change your mind and your attitude if the old way no longer serves you as well. You are under no obligation to hang on to old beliefs and patterns of behaviour, change if you want to.

Remember, nothing is permanent, all is constant change.

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• Original image is pin-board-978197_1920 by kalhh from Pixabay