The Ending of Things

Once a person understands the rise and fall of all phenomena, then experiencing the worst that human life can give does not make one tremble. You know that it’s something passing just as the wind passes your face. You don’t know where that wind comes from, and you can’t tell where that wind is going. All you know is that a wind is blowing. You don’t know when that wind is going to end, nor if it will get stronger or weaker. Like the weather, the forecast for moods is “changeable." All the feelings (vedan?) that arise in the mind, and all the feelings that impinge upon the body, arise and pass away. Even though you try as best as you can to control these feelings in your life, though you try to get only the pleasant feelings and to ward off the painful ones, you never know where they are coming from or when they will go.

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