The great teachings and parables of Jesus keep reminding us to live in the present moment, not to try to build false securities, false empires, to face impermanence not with fear or despair or rage, but to face impermanence with confidence and faith, so that in facing it we can discover what is changeless. That is one of the great gifts that meditation brings us: to be able to see how impermanent, precious but also impermanent, everything in our life is. Everything, even the things we hold most precious in our life, are impermanent. What we need to be able to do is to look directly and fearlessly into that impermanence, and to be able to see what is still, what is changeless, what is real in the midst of it. This requires only great simplicity, the simplicity that the mantra teaches us. If you are too clever, you miss the point; you have to learn to be simple. The mantra is the great gift of simplicity.
(Aspects of Love 1 by Laurence Freeman OSB )
