Why The ‘Same’ River Is A ‘Different’ River

过去心不可得，The past mind cannot be attained,
现在心不可得，The present mind cannot be attained,
未来心不可得。The future mind cannot be attained.

– 金刚经 Diamond Sutra (The Buddha)

‘No man ever steps in the “same” river twice,
for it’s not the same river
and he’s not the same man.’ (Said Heraclitus)
The man changes physically and mentally,
from moment to moment,
as the river’s waters, bed and banks morph too.

This is the flux of oneself and everything else,
of the universe itself, including us its inhabitants.
All is constant ‘changing-ness’…
from thoughts to emotions, from sub-particles to galaxies –
nothing stays fixed in space and time,
having neither intrinsic substance nor permanence.

Clutching the fine sands of time in a hand
is like trying to halt an upturned hourglass
that can never be made still…
The sand fallen like the past slipped away.
The sand falling like the present slipping away.
The sand about to fall like the future about to slip away.

How then, do we really live in the present,
when even the present keeps slipping away?
Go with the right flow, and redirect wrong directions!
Change and change shall we,
so we might as well change for the better,
till we become the best (in compassion and wisdom) and timeless – Buddhas!

No one ever thinks in the ‘same’ thought twice,
for it’s not the same thought
and one’s not the same thinker.

– Anonone