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West Meets East

Impermanence

Hiroshi Satow remains placid in the face of change.

In this world all things are transient. They inhabit only a brief space of time. Some may lament this, but others may not; they think they can enjoy things all the better for their mutability.

A Japanese poet and writer in the Kamakura period, Kamo no Chōmei (1155-1216 CE), wrote that the flow of a river is not what it was a minute ago and the bubbles on the surface are constantly coming and going, never remaining even for a second [see also Heraclitus, Ed]. A famous war story set in the same period, The Tale of the Heike, begins with a description of transience: “The sound of the Gion Shoja bells echoes the impermanence of all things; the color of the sala flowers reveals the truth that the prosperous decline.

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