The flowers on the azalea were deep red in the center, slashed by black pistils and faded to pink at the end of each petal. The threads of a spiderweb slinked between the plant’s leaves, behind the flowers, dotted with dew that glistened in the bright morning sun. But this morning the flowers have faded to dull pink, and soon they’ll be brown clumps clinging to an unexceptional shrub for much of the late Spring, into the early summer. The azalea will be ugly for much longer than it was beautiful. The beauty of an azalea depends on when one sees it, for like everything alive the plant is ever changing. Like everything alive the plant exhibits impermanence, or to us the lack of a definable self. Realizing the nature of impermanence is the end result of the message taught in many meditation traditions.
So Judge Already
So Judge Already
So Judge Already
The flowers on the azalea were deep red in the center, slashed by black pistils and faded to pink at the end of each petal. The threads of a spiderweb slinked between the plant’s leaves, behind the flowers, dotted with dew that glistened in the bright morning sun. But this morning the flowers have faded to dull pink, and soon they’ll be brown clumps clinging to an unexceptional shrub for much of the late Spring, into the early summer. The azalea will be ugly for much longer than it was beautiful. The beauty of an azalea depends on when one sees it, for like everything alive the plant is ever changing. Like everything alive the plant exhibits impermanence, or to us the lack of a definable self. Realizing the nature of impermanence is the end result of the message taught in many meditation traditions.