Impermanence - the true nature of all conditioned phenomena lies deeply rooted as one of the core teachings in Zen. As Ven. Mahinda mentioned during one of his dhamma talks, "What is in the nature to rise, is in the nature to fall."
This line of thought sparked off when i had a cup of coffee with MM some days back. One of MM's friends mentioned something in the past that MM felt true till today. "In difficult times, ya just have to wait it out." (in comparison to the classic line by Bhante, this version have somewhat more modernised feel to it)
Within this simple sentence lies an universal truth, all phenomena, be it mental or physical, pass with time. Nothing is permanent, be it good or bad. Bad times like good times, come and go. In times of suffering, wait it out. It's not gonna last forever. That's the point this profound yet simple statement is stating.
How to wait it out then? There is no one fixed way to go about it. Some just grit their teeth and move on through sheer determination. Some choose to pick up something to do to enrich their life while distracting themselves from the suffering. Some simply sit it out. Some choose to simply let it go.
Bottomline, there's one thing in common for all these people. They chose to move on, to stop suffering. One has to start somewhere. As Buddha once said, "You are the child of your past, parent of your future, the captain of your ship."
You cannot change anything that is of the past but you can decide where to go for your next moment. The very minimum ~ you decide how you want to feel about things. That's freewill and no one can take that away from you. =)
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