Adaptability

The changing weather is a fine teaching in adaptability.

One day warm sunshine, spring flowers, birds singing. Now, howling winds and snow. Tomorrow what will it be? If we are wise, then the heart will always adapt to receive the changing qualities of the present circumstance. Stillness and movement, calmness and wind, brightness, darkness, praise, criticism, gain and loss, the familiar or the unexpected.

As long as our practice, our peace of mind is dependent on particular conditions or predictability, having things the way we expect or the way we like, we create the causes of dukkha right there. Why? Because everything is uncertain. Everything is uncertain: that’s the very nature of all things, mental and physical.

If we look for certainty in that which is uncertain, what can the result be other than dukkha, stress and the feeling of wrongness? We’re looking for certainty where it can’t be found, looking for predictability where it can’t be found. So, how could we not be disappointed? If we’re looking for satisfaction in that which can’t satisfy, we’re looking in the wrong place. If we are looking for certainty, security, in that which is unstable, we’re looking in the wrong place.

This reflection by Ajahn Amaro is from the article, “Every Thing Is Uncertain.”