immota labascunt:

Et quae perpetuò sunt agitata manent.

                   The motionless disappears:

                   what is in constant motion survives.

                                Samuel Johnson

                                (Life of Johnson, Apr. 9, 1778)*

     Wise men debate: Is consciousness seamless? Is it pearls on a string? Think: There is the Quick, as in living, and there is Stillness, as in death. Not on your life. How could it be? Stillness is an illusion. Death is not dead. Death is an event. Life lives. Death is the moment that life exits the body of its host. He is dead is a metaphor. He who died is nonexistent, therefore he cannot be dead, he cannot be anything.

     Life is: Relentless. Ruthless. Unflinching. Careless. Ceaseless. Life cannot be killed. Life cheats Death. Life Departs.

     Coming and going to the latrine, passing each other in the hot, Bihari night, my teacher would whisper to me, anicca, anicca, anicca (impermanence).

     The universe pulses. Hearts beat. Bellies rise and fall. Shiva dances. Life leaps.

     The cape swirls. Change happens. The thing that lands is different than the thing that leapt.

Change is the Law. To apprehend change is the beginning of wisdom. To understand change is the end of wisdom.