{"id":4517,"date":"2017-02-28T12:53:53","date_gmt":"2017-02-28T17:53:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/?p=4517"},"modified":"2017-02-28T13:15:10","modified_gmt":"2017-02-28T18:15:10","slug":"impermanence-exchanging-gratitude-entitlement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2017\/02\/impermanence-exchanging-gratitude-entitlement.html","title":{"rendered":"Life is Impermanent: Exchanging Gratitude for Entitlement"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"IMG_5656\"If there is ever any doubt about life’s impermanence, mud season starting in February erases it. Our dirt roads are rutted, the snows are melting, and flooding in some areas is an imminent threat. This isn’t supposed<\/em> to happen until April.<\/p>\n

Yesterday, I neglected to bring my phone with me on the walk. Thus, I couldn’t take pictures of some very interesting subject matter that were emerging from the thaw. I walked the same route to capture them today, and found that impermanence had done its work–they were all gone.<\/p>\n

I had especially wished to capture the image of a large formation of icicles that were clinging to a\u00a0boulder that, as they melted, had a waterfall running underneath them. That rock was clear today. The moment gone.<\/p>\n

Of course, photography gives us a skewed view of impermanence–as if we could actually capture reality and pin it down for a time. I got the above photo instead, the last of the icicles returning to the earth. I’ve been taking a lot of photographs lately and posting to Instagram.\u00a0Follow me on Instagram >><\/a><\/p>\n

I’ve been teaching a lot lately–four workshops in a stretch of just over a month–from California to Connecticut. I made the bold claim that Donald Trump is\u00a0our dharma teacher. The Trump administration didn’t invent political impermanence with all its uncertainty, insecurity, and doubt but they certainly have made it more obvious.<\/p>\n

Trump embodies what the Buddha taught we should not do if we want to be peaceful and sustainably happy. Greed. Check. Hatred. Check. Overblown belief in self. Check. DJT is an anti-role model. As a recent op-ed by Maureen Dowd<\/a> in the New York Times has pointed out, he’s also made good on his promise to make America great again by mobilizing activism, increasing interest in the free press, and even boosting ratings on SNL.<\/p>\n

The Dakini Speaks is a poem about impermanence and how we are not entitled to anything but that. The Dakini knows that “impermanence is life’s only promise and she keeps it with a ruthless impeccability.”\u00a0You can link to this powerful poem on Jennifer Wellwood’s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The alternative to entitlement is gratitude. For each moment that something untoward does not happen, we can celebrate. Imagine if the news was un-news, reporting all the things that didn’t happen today. The natural disasters, murders, and mishaps.<\/p>\n

Good news today: For the 22,778th day in a row since Nagasaki on 6 August 1945, a nuclear weapon was not exploded on a population.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Our negativity bias, tends to focus on what is wrong instead of what it not wrong. Gratitude helps us to reverse this trend and keep sight of the pernicious effects of entitlement. In any moment, some\u00a0thing\u00a0<\/em>can happen to\u00a0any\u00a0<\/em>one. There are no exceptions.<\/p>\n

My poem\u00a0Anicca<\/em> is the Pali word for impermanence. I’ve been reciting this poem as well at my workshops:<\/p>\n

It was there and then not there.
\nIt came and went
\nIt was never here in the way
\nthat we hoped<\/p>\n

It was a wave then a particle
\nThen a wave then gone or
\nGoing at least.
\nExpanding until it vanishes
\nand the end is the beginning<\/p>\n

Who am I in this cosmic expanse?
\nNo one. No thing.
\nAnd everything.
\nMy dust is the same dust form the beginning
\nThat bowling ball that exploded into everything<\/p>\n

When I forget that, I think I am important
\nThat the universe needs me to persist.
\nI forgot, too, that I am expanding into nothingness.
\nMy breathing shows me how this is so.
\nWhen I pay close enough attention
\nIt is always different if
\nDecaying and renewing and
\nMoving along an invisible line toward the future.<\/p>\n

I want to fix this moment
\nFreeze it in time
\nFuse it to myself
\nI know this is futile
\nToday I am 50 years old
\nYesterday I was seven
\nTomorrow I will be fogging my breath on a pane of cold glass
\nwriting my elegy with the tip of my finger<\/p>\n

I add all the moments for some calculus of worthiness,
\nIt doesn\u2019t register; doesn\u2019t add up.
\nI have forgotten most of these moments
\nAlthough they live in the landscape of now,
\nMaking up the soil and the water.
\nMost of the rest were only images,
\nconjured, glimpsed, and fleeting
\nThey evaporate into time and become dreams
\nThe remaining remembered and real
\nHave lost their footing and like Neruda\u2019s time,
\nWalk barefoot through darkness and illumination \u2013 Arnie Kozak<\/p>\n

 <\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If there is ever any doubt about life’s impermanence, mud season starting in February erases it. Our dirt roads are rutted, the snows are melting, and flooding in some areas is an imminent threat. This isn’t supposed to happen until April. Yesterday, I neglected to bring my phone with me on the walk. Thus, I…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":268,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,15,8,10],"tags":[1064,67,1146,214,1145],"class_list":["post-4517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-buddha-101","category-media","category-mindful-living","category-spider-mind-world-of-interconnections","tag-donald-trump","tag-impermanence","tag-nuclear-war","tag-poetry-2","tag-political-uncertainty"],"yoast_head":"\nLife's Impermanence: Exchanging Gratitude for Entitlement<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Gratitude is the antidote to impermanence. We are not entitled to things going our way yet we can appreciate when they do.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2017\/02\/impermanence-exchanging-gratitude-entitlement.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Life's Impermanence: Exchanging Gratitude for Entitlement\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Gratitude is the antidote to impermanence. We are not entitled to things going our way yet we can appreciate when they do.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2017\/02\/impermanence-exchanging-gratitude-entitlement.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Mindfulness Matters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-02-28T17:53:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-02-28T18:15:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/files\/2017\/02\/IMG_5656-400x400.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dr. Arnie Kozak\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Life's Impermanence: Exchanging Gratitude for Entitlement","description":"Gratitude is the antidote to impermanence. 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Dr. Kozak's ability to translate ancient healing traditions into pragmatic applications suitable for modern lifestyles through the use of metaphors have made him a strong voice in healthcare and business. Beginning with a journey to India in the 80\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s where he took the Bodhisattva vows from His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Arnie Dr. Kozak began his lifelong practice in mindfulness meditation. Intent on finding a way to bring the practical healing attributes of mindfulness he began incorporating these techniques in his private practice. In 2002 Dr. Kozak created Exquisite Mind in Burlington, Vermont as a vehicle that could expand his wisdom to larger audiences beyond individual psychotherapy to professionals and corporations, health care providers, public groups and, most recently with Exquisite Mind Golf, amateur and professional golfers. His award-winning new book, Wild Chickens and Petty Tyrants: 108 Metaphors for Mindfulness (Wisdom Publications, 2009) is a thoughtful, funny, and inspiring translation of mindfulness practice through the inventive use of metaphor applicable to our daily lives. In addition to his work with Exquisite Mind, Arnie Kozak, Ph.D., Licensed Psychologist\u00e2\u20ac\u201dDoctorate has been a Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Vermont and is a Clinical Instructor in Psychiatry and Medicine, University of Vermont College of Medicine. He has studied and practiced clinical psychology, meditation, and yoga for more than 25 years. He has studied with several meditation masters, including S. N. Goenka, Larry Rosenberg, Gurumayi Chidvilasananda, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. After receiving his bachelors degree with honors from Tufts University, he was awarded a Presidential Fellowship to get his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University at Buffalo. He completed his training as a Psychological Fellow at the Harvard Medical School. Prior to founding the Exquisite Mind in 2002, Arnie worked ten years in the private sector for the PKC Corporation consulting on mental health content for this revolutionary software company.","sameAs":["http:\/\/exquisitemind.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/author\/akozak"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/268"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4517"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4517\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4523,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4517\/revisions\/4523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}