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Posted 2016-06-12T22:25:29Z

Contemplating impermanence, anxiety, and bravado, or: Swimming with loons on Memorial Day

At the end of May I attended a 6-day meditation retreat taught by Yongyey Mingyur Rinpoche. His teachings were on a variety of topics and types of meditation practice, organized into a structured curriculum called the Joy of Living. Although the Joy of Living is a secular path, it is heavily informed by Tibetan Buddhism. One of the teachings was about the concept of impermanence. According to the Rinpoche, or “YMR” as he is sometimes referred to, permanence and impermanence are both just concepts, and therefore neither one is ultimately the Truth; in “ultimate reality,” which is beyond concepts, there is neither permanence nor impermanence. However, Buddhists believe that much suffering is caused by illusion, or wrong beliefs, and that some concepts are more true, i.e. cause less suffering, than others.[...]