Echo

Lewis Carroll made a valid point through Alice, when she said;

“It’s no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.”

There is the old story of the great war ship, which saw countless battles and rode many seas. Through-out its life it was repaired, when its deck was splintered by cannon fire, or its mast broken. The hull was replaced, the sails renewed, its cabins refurbished…in fact, over the long years it sailed every last piece was changed and replaced for new. Yet the ship still sailed under the same name, was still thought of as the same vessel.

Are we any different?

Everything about us changes through-out our lives, yet we are in essence the same as when we first entered the world.

Zen talks about the impermanence of all things. To many, this is seen as a symbol of powerlessness, the idea that nothing lasts, that no importance holds sway – yet the mighty battle ship retained its importance, as did Alice, even though she was a different person to the one she had been just yesterday.

Change and impermanence are inevitable, yet that does not render us powerless. Instead, it can be viewed as the opposite – even when we are no longer here, we are here, all things are here, always, all interconnected and as important as each other.

We are the universe and our echo resonates into eternity.