This meditation is working with impermanence. As we look at our reactions to the Corona crisis, the understanding of impermanence can give us a perspective that can help us with anxiety and despair. Sometimes to see impermanence, it is useful to view our situation with a different lens, a different time. Then we can see that indeed all things do change. This morning, I heard on the radio a Kenyan facing both locust and Corona, saying “we all die, you Corona will die too.”

The meditation is based on the Diamond Sutra, which tells us that we tend to get stuck in ideas, and advises us to see all things as forming and disappearing like a drop of dew or a flash of lightening.

The famous Gatha in the Diamond Sutra says:

All composed things are like a dream.
A phantom, a drop of dew, a flash of lightning.
This is how to meditate on them.
That is how to observe them

一切有為法
如夢幻泡影
如露亦如電
應作如是觀

At the same time the Buddha advises us that although everything is of the nature of change, and dream-like, there are threads that leave impressions throughout the world and through time. The Buddha says that when the mind of love and understanding is expressed in a person, the Buddha is in touch with that person even if there are 500 years in the future. The mind of love and understanding surpasses the limitations of temporary reality and leaves its mark through space and time.

Looking at things from the perspective of 500 years from now is very helpful to allow us to see the dance of change and inter-penetration, how things turn into, and influence one another.

We begin with Shamata, stopping the habitual mind, calming the mind, by coming back to the breath. Creating space within ourselves

When we feel there is space withing us we can start the second exercise. Here I look at my breathe and can apply some “analysis” (but without judgment). I see that my in-breath has a beginning, it develops and grows, reaches a peak, then starts to fade, and disappears. The in-breath then becomes an out-breath which begins, grows, deepens, dissipates and ends, becoming another in-breath.
I see that the breath is of the nature of constant change, an that one breath becomes another.

I ask myself where is the breath of 5 minutes ago, of 50 years ago? Where is the in-breath that has just become a out-breath? Where is the breath of 5 minutes from now?

In the third part I look at myself, a person with a body and a mind, feelings and thoughts.
I see that my body is formed, then born, grows then declines, and then fades and turns to bones and ashes.
I then look at my thoughts and feelings. I see that they arise (from other thoughts, from things I see, hear, touch, smell, or taste), they grow in strength, and they dissipate, fading and becoming other thoughts and feelings.
My problems, my joys, my life, they all come into being and dissolve, in this dance of constant change.

I ask myself where and who will I be in 50 years? Where will I be in 500 years?

I now look at my loved ones, seeing their constant changing nature. I embrace their impermanence. I see my loved one in 500 years from now.

I look at mountains, great, solid, vast mountains, and I see that mountains are constantly changing. The snow packs melt, winds and rivers erode the mountain. There are constant changes, some very slow to show, in a mountain that appears so solid and strong.
Where will the mountain be in 500,000 years? In 5 million years?

Now, I look at rivers and oceans, constantly flowing, changing. I see that rivers start with snow melts at the top of mountains, in cracks in the earth, in fountains and streams, becoming rivers that flow to the ocean.
The river of 5 minutes ago is no longer the same river.
I contemplate the river in 500 years.

Looking at my society, my culture, my nation, institutions, political regimes and parties. I see that they are transient. They arise in response to needs of people at certain times, and they disappear when history demands new needs new forms.

My planet has been changing from its very inception, continents and oceans shifting, atmosphere forming and changing. One day this planet will disappear.

Stars and galaxies. Formed in big bangs, disappearing into black holes, Dancing the dance of constant change.

I connect with all beings, people, animals, plants, rocks, stars, and galaxies throughout all time: from beginning-less time, through endless time. Seeing us constantly changing, becoming one another, influencing each other through time and space.

The threads of understanding and love connect us all.