All Things Change, Yet the Ground Is at Peace
All things are impermanent, arising and passing away; when even that rising and falling settles, deep stillness itself is peace.
Do I strain to halt change, or do I know how to rest on the still ground beyond it?
📝Reflection
This verse is often chanted in the face of death, but I read it as a song of life. The first two lines are cold fact: all things change, and what arises must pass — youth, love, power. Seen only thus, it is bleak. But the latter two lines turn it: when even that ceaseless surge of arising and passing settles, there is a deep stillness, and that stillness is peace. I understand this as waves and sea. Waves endlessly rise and fall — this is arising-and-passing. We live elated and cast down by each wave. But the deep sea beneath the waves is always calm. To set down the vain striving to halt change, and drop anchor in that deep sea — that is the peace this verse speaks of. Do not grip what changes; rest on the ground that does not.
🌱Apply It Today
When change frightens you or loss makes you anxious today, recall not each wave but the calm sea beneath. You cannot halt change, but you can drop anchor on the ground that does not change.
This verse is read as universal humanistic wisdom, not religion — no faith is promoted, and the reflection is 100% original ONGO content.
