September 28, 2026

Meet Change Without Struggle

Impermanence is a principle of harmony. When we don't struggle against it, we are in harmony with reality.

Pema Chödrön is an American-born Tibetan Buddhist nun who came to the dharma after her own marriage fell apart, an experience that shaped her teaching on working with groundlessness. This line appears in When Things Fall Apart, a book written for people facing loss, uncertainty, and the collapse of plans they had counted on. She is saying that pain comes less from change itself and more from the inner fight against it — the moment we stop bracing against what is shifting, we settle into how things actually are. In the Buddhist view, impermanence is not a problem to solve but a basic fact of existence, present in every mood, relationship, and breath. Practice means noticing where we are gripping something that was never going to hold still, and loosening that grip a little at a time.

A principle of Eastern Wisdom: Impermanence →