Our problems and sufferings can come in many various forms, from the physical to the psychological. So for many, alleviating suffering and accentuating gratification is the fundamental importance of daily life. Few of us can really cope with the Truth of our lives, so gratification is of utmost importance. Hence, we seek to create some sort of comfort zone whereby we live merely to “eat, drink and be merry.” We always need some carrot dangling in front of us in order to coax us to do anything. It’s the ol’ “what’s in it for me” kind of attitude.

Most of us are in a deep pain that we either know very little about or have covered up with all sorts of habits of gratification that we hope will just make it all “go away.” It can’t work this way, my dear one. The ego develops itself as a separate entity within us that must be reckoned with as we willfully insist upon seeking to live without any real sense of consciousness. Most of us cannot comprehend the importance of meditation and sustaining a sense of consciousness in order to realize the essence of impermanence as the nature of living here on Earth.

This spiritual ignorance is the total disregard and apathy for those inner destructive elements that we so “righteously” induce in our lives – such as passion, desire and vengeance – that move against the natural harmony and rhythm of existence that is Life. This Assumed Mind is mechanical…hence, it has no way to be open to the power of impermanence. This mind cannot consider anything but fear of survival and the selfish need for “security,” which does not actually exist.

So we live against impermanence and suffer for this in many ways. Our mind has a logic that it repeats and insists is “correct.” This logic is about how we assess people, conditions and situations. We have our “moral code” for survival and then apply this to our logic, which becomes the governor of our entire life experience. Most of us will never go any further than this in any given lifetime.

We live in the realm of three elements of Life here on Earth:

1) Everything in this world is impermanent
2) We live in delusion due to the anxiety of dissatisfaction with life as it appears to be
3) What the Buddha called “Anatta” or non-self

It is in these three elements that we find the freedom to awaken and know that which the human mind cannot “think.” By developing the ability to include impermanence in the equations of all of our mental processes we create a new mind. In Zen, this new mind is called a No-Mind – one that considers the aperture of Life through a mind that is not cluttered with decisions of condescending opinions, desires or moral obligations. In its simplest form, we are seeking a mind that is not heralded by logic and deductive reasoning.

Through meditation and the practice of No-Mind, we find the core of an intelligence that is often overlooked or completely disregarded. Through the absence of assumed logic and reasoning (how we string one thought with another to create an assumed logic) we are introduced to the depth of intuition and begin to open to the essence of the state that is No-Mind. It is in this process that we discover what the Buddha meant by the “Anatta,” the non-self.

Consciousness reveals impermanence. To have this direct experience, we must first have the awareness that allows us to observe the mind that we live with…that is all. This simple insight means that consciousness emerges from realizing the operations of the mind and recognizing what creates desire and illusion. Just the pure recognition of it all allows the mind to become liberated from the fetters that chain it to emotional states of fear. Breaking this link, this chain, with impermanence as the heart and soul of this life experience, we make huge progress into consciousness through the inner practice of emergence.

Emergence occurs when we can actually OBSERVE the process and operations of our thinking. The moment this occurs…we awaken and are engulfed by consciousness. Once we actually recognize the operations and methods of how we think, our mind emerges from the mechanism of emotional thinking and becomes privy to more profound states of recognition that become CONSCIOUSNESS.

Impermanence is about realizing what is important and what is NOT important. Impermanence brings a child into this world; it also removes that child, if that is its Karma. Impermanence brings “happiness” into our lives and it also reveals how this “happiness” is no antidote for the emotional fear that runs so unconsciously rampant in our life. Hence, all “happiness” dissipates in the face of authentic Love.

When we are no longer interested in the support our emotions crave in order to sustain the mischief that eats away at our lifetime, we come to a sacred place where we no longer need to HOLD anyone or anything to us as permanent. It is here that desire as the only antidote to fear drops away and we are left with only IMPERMANENCE. In this state of impermanence we can clearly realize for ourselves that mind is one thing and emotions are another. They DO NOT HAVE TO BE LINKED…nor should they be.