watching clouds

Sitting

Watching clouds

How ephemeral I become

You have probably sat and watched clouds upon occasion, perhaps on a lazy day, nothing really needing to be done, perhaps a warm summer's day with a few clouds drifting about in the sky. Isn't it relaxing to watch them, as they float about, occasionally merging, occasionally splitting in two, growing and shrinking, and sometimes disappearing altogether. This is the nature of clouds. There is nothing constant about them, nothing solid.

And the remarkable thing is, if you are in a meditative space, if your mind is quiet and untroubled, then watching clouds, one becomes rather like them. That feeling of solidity in oneself begins to soften, and we too begin to melt away. For in truth there is nothing persistent in us, but we like to think there is. And that wanting is enough for us to believe that we are solid, that this I has a real existence, unchanging, continuing from yesterday to today and on to tomorrow. But it is not so. We two are like the clouds, drifting about, sometimes growing, sometimes merging, sometimes splitting apart, and sometimes simply disappearing altogether. For we, like the clouds, are ephemeral.