Saturday, September 17, 2016

Continual Flux


A few years after the passing away of the Buddha, Heraclitus taught the Panta Rhei doctrine, the flux theory, at Athens, and one wonders if that teaching was transmitted to him from India.

"There is no static being," said Heraclitus, "no unchanging substratum."

"Change, movement, is Lord of the Universe. Everything is in a state of becoming, of continual flux (Panta Rhei)."

He continues, "You cannot step twice into the same river, for fresh waters are ever flowing in upon you."

But one who understands the root of Dhamma [Dharma] would go a step further and say: "The same man cannot step twice into the same river; for the so-called man who is only a conflux of mind and body never remains the same for two consecutive moments."

---Venerable Piyadassi Thera, in Buddha's Ancient Path--- 

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