The Four Seasons

Darned if I can remember where I read this recently, but in a Chinese philosophical text, I remember someone using the analogy of the Four Seasons to describe the cycles of life. I thought this was a great comparison. I think many people realize in the back of their minds that life has its ups and downs, but don’t ponder this much further. However, understanding how life, like the Four Seasons, constantly changes is very important to finding peace.

Afterall, we can how life can be cold and cruel at times (like Winter), but this is inevitably followed by Spring, then Summer. Then the good times (like Summer) inevitably decline and go back to Winter. In other words, bad times follow good; good times follow bad. It never ends, and the pattern never deviates. This is why I think that the Buddha taught that “this too shall pass”: no matter how good or bad life is at the moment, it is subject to change.

What really gets interesting is how this cycle happens both in the long-term (one’s life, civilization, governments, etc), and also on a much smaller scale. One can see good weeks follow bad, bad following good and so on. But thinking of cycles can be abstract and hard to appreciate, so I found this teaching of the Four Seasons to be more concrete and easier to remind myself.

Anyways, just wanted to pass that along.

Happy Sunday everyone!