“If we pay attention to how time passes, we may find that all the “contents” of what we feel and experience are ephemeral: passing, transient, fleeting…… our experiences are ephemeral and time is ephemeral….. In fact, our sense of awareness is not very different from our sense of time…… When we are experiencing things, they seem so solid (so we get caught in them) When we experience time, it seems very real …. so constant…. so unchanging….. but really…..
Time, and our awareness of time and events….. is flowing by…… untouched by the “contents of the moment”.
Speaking of the term ephemeral….. started to think of the opposite of ephemeral…. which might be termed as “unchanging” … waht do we know that is truly unchanging? ……. actually, if one were to say “Anything which has a beginning and an end is ephemeral and changing”, then nothing is unchanging ……. all the things we can see are ephemeral.
So this makes me consider that the concept of Anatman or No Self , could refer to the fact that in the “solid” world”, there is nothing stationary……. nothing unchanging….. it is no wonder we keep grabbing for something that might be “unmovable” and “unchanging”….. no wonder we struggle for some sense of constancy……
And this grabbing for something stationary, is the root of our suffering.
Look at our actions as human beings:
Trying to find and hang onto a person/love who won’t change……
Trying to find and hang onto a happiness that won’t change…..
Trying to find and hang onto a “God” that won’t change……
Trying to find and hang onto a future/possessions that is reliable…..
no wonder we all suffer from anxiety! To exist in this universe is to exist in the world where everything has “beginnings and endings”, and this means that nothing is stationary….. everything changes…. This is human suffering.
To realize that everything is ephemeral, and then to learn to “flow with it”….. that is the end of suffering. That is why the answer to almost any problem is “Let it go”…… open your hand and let it flow…… “
Reality is Dharma 