Cattāri Brahmavihārā

As part of the Dharma Path training I undertook.So many years ago but and which I have only recently restarted, we are to spend about two months’ meditating and reflecting on impermanence. One would think that doing so might have a pretty minor effect upon a practice that is already a decade strong but one would be wrong. In fact, the truth of anicca had never seemed so real, clear and potent as it had in the last few days.

In essence, I have been devotion one and usually two periods on meditation every day to samatha practice and contemplation of impermanence. After selling the mind on the breath or a nimitta for ten minutes I then begin to reflect anicca either through using the words of traditional recollection or by turning my attention to each thing in my life that comes to mind and running that it will go away in the end. Just realizing calmly and clearly that these teeth, this dirty and my children will all eventually pass away and no longer be part of my experience is beginning to change the way I grasp at things.

And then reflecting further on just how many people have passed out of my life whom I once thought I could never live without it becomes clear that the Dhamma is the only thing with cultivating and that there is no place for anything in life except love, compassion and care.