Everything Is Flowing and Changing

Perhaps the image of a river is the best representation for life in its unlimited forms --constantly flowing and changing, with sudden twists and unexpected happenings caused by countless internal and external factors in the present and in the past. Sometimes the river is slow and gentle, meandering, seemingly tranquil; but it could suddenly become completely chaotic, full of intense sounds and uncontrolled fury. Beneath it are looming dangers and hidden threats, sharp snags and huge boulders or rocks, big and small poisonous snakes or reptiles, ferocious allegators or hungry crocodiles, and numerous invisible deadly microscopic organisms and toxic chemicals thriving in its own water. Interestingly, the water running over the apparently same rock is never the same, either. The source of a river is usually up high in mountains, where water from the sky and from creeks in surrounding areas has been accumulated for eons. From that usually remote and humble origin, the river begins its long journey over all types of terrains, welcoming new tributaries to become bigger and mightier as it is flowing towards the vast ocean where it finally ends its life as a big river. But the river does not actually die there. In fact, it just mingles with other water currents, and gradually gets conditioned by and mixed with other substances in the air to transform itself into a myriad of other forms: steam or hot vapor, morning dew or thin mist, opaque haze or dense fog....The river is apparently no longer the same as it used to be, but who can say it does not exist. It is transforming into other forms only to come back sometime somewhere, when all conditions meet, in due course. It might be returning to a humble place among mountains to start another journey as a long river. In other smaller and more humble scenarios, it could simply be falling into some rice beds, or just landing on the bare ground as drops of rain, and running off underground; hence, it becomes unknown, even though the water was once from a big river on earth. Therefore, don't ever think you are the same person as you have been, or as you were yesterday, even the past second. Every tiny cell in your body and any fleeting thought or feeling in your mind and heart are no longer exactly the same within a second. You will be transforming at some point, as you are right now. Such is reality: constantly flowing and changing.