One evening, I sat on the cliffs above the Pacific Ocean, watching the waves roll in. Each one rose, peaked, and dissolved back into the sea—countless waves, never the same, yet always the ocean. It struck me then: this is how life is. Our bodies, our thoughts, the world itself – all are like those waves, rising and passing in endless flux.

We often live as if we’re solid, permanent beings navigating a stable world. But the truth is closer to that ocean: a flow of changing conditions, with no fixed ‘self’ at the center.

The heart that understands impermanence becomes like the sky: things pass through it – joy, sorrow, gain, loss -but the sky isn’t harmed. This is the freedom the Buddha promised

Ajahn Amaro, Small Boat, Great Mountain