If everything in life is temporary, how do we find something that's permanent and true?

Question

It's a rhetorical question, so I'm looking for a purposeful (even metaphorical) answer -- but not wisecracks. If you can't think of something thought-provoking to say, please don't answer.

Answer 1

"Nothing in the realm of thoughts or ideologies is absolute.

Lean on one for long, and it collapses.

Because of this, there is nothing more futile and frustrating than relying on the mind.

To arrive at the unshakable, you must befriend the Tao.

To do this, quiet your thinking.

Stop analyzing, dividing, making distinctions between one thing and another.

Simply see that you are at the center of the universe, and accept all things and beings as parts of your infinite body.

When you perceive that an act done to another is done to yourself, you have understood the great truth."
-Hua Hu Ching

Answer 2

Heraclitus said that you can't step into the same river twice. Oscar Wilde said, "You can't go home again." Not only does the river change, but so do we human beings.

On the other hand, you will find out that it is almost impossible to change how we feel about most things. You can't just stop loving the people that you love, nor can you love the people or things that you loathe... or are indifferent to.

The way I look at things is that life is other people. Language is what we have in common, and the meme of language is growing, and we people swim in there for our lifetimes. Without other people talking to us, and sharing with us, there wouldn't be life. So, speaking the truth, and keeping our agreements faithfully, is how we make our own WORD something that other people see as "permanent and true." Everything else is temporary.
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Here is a poem by Sylvia Plath about how temporary things are. It's called The Arrival of the Bee Box

The Arrival of the Bee Box

I ordered this, clean wood box
Square as a chair and almost too heavy to lift.
I would say it was the coffin of a midget
Or a square baby
Were there not such a din in it.

The box is locked, it is dangerous.
I have to live with it overnight
And I can't keep away from it.
There are no windows, so I can't see what is in there.
There is only a little grid, no exit.

I put my eye to the grid.
It is dark, dark,
With the swarmy feeling of African hands
Minute and shrunk for export,
Black on black, angrily clambering.

How can I let them out?
It is the noise that appalls me most of all,
The unintelligible syllables.
It is like a Roman mob,
Small, taken one by one, but my god, together!

I lay my ear to furious Latin.
I am not a Caesar.
I have simply ordered a box of maniacs.
They can be sent back.
They can die, I need feed them nothing, I am the owner.

I wonder how hungry they are.
I wonder if they would forget me
If I just undid the locks and stood back and turned into a tree.
There is the laburnum, its blond colonnades,
And the petticoats of the cherry.

They might ignore me immediately
In my moon suit and funeral veil.
I am no source of honey
So why should they turn on me?
Tomorrow I will be sweet God, I will set them free.

The box is only temporary.

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Answer 3

The Ancient Vedas which are the original "How Too" books that came with this material world to help the human beings to utilize this material world and get the best results and ultimately how to get out of this place. The basic info it gives on reality or (permanence) is-
We are not this material body, IE; Race, color, nationality, Religion, mind, intellect, senses, job, etc. We are all eternal spirit souls, part and parcel of the Supreme Soul, also known as Krishna, Allah, Jehovah, Vishnu, etc. We never die, only this mortal body dies.
This material world is not our real home, it is called Maya (illusion) and is temporary and full of misery, only one fourth of the souls come here, and the rest are enjoying blissful eternal loving relationships with our Maker named above. This world was made so we could act out our free will and try to live separate from God. He never touches our free will. When we get exhausted trying to lord it over this material nature after many lifetimes, seek out reality and those who are intelligent, take up the process of self realization (Bhakti Yoga) which gives one real peace, happiness and reality. Then at the end of life they can return to the eternal Kingdom where there is no more birth, death, old age, or disease and be eternally happy.
For info. Go to harekrishnatemple.com Read Bhagavad Gita- As it is by Bhaktivedanta Prabhupada asitis.com you can read it on line.

Answer 4

Love and friendship are permanent the memories of goodness and love stay on forever even after Death...the contributions that so many people gave me in life as i was growing up are never forgotten thats what being adult is all about is coming to terms with the Loved ones that have passed on and they gave us so much love that we can pass on to the younger generation and share the love we received that is eternal and everlasting even after death :))))

Answer 5

Find what does not change.

YOU are inside experiencing everything changing, right? Your thoughts change, your feelings, your actions, your environment, your conditions, the universe. Obviously then, those are not the YOU inside that does not change. What does not change is within you. The deepest part of yourself, behind all the change.

There have been laid out many ways to gain increasing awareness at this level, throughout history. Perhaps you have heard of them but have overlooked them.

Answer 6

You don't.

You simply look for things that are less temporary than you are.

To a fruit fly with a lifespan of one day, virtually any human experience or "gift" is permanent!

Answer 7

The only thing permanent in life is death. It is certain, inevitable, and can happen at any time. That's the only thing you can bet on.

Answer 8

you proved that your statement can never be true.... if EVERYTHING in life is temporary.. then logic has it that the temporary existence of things must be permenant and true..... however.. that must mean that not everything is temporary..

Answer 9

The purpose of life is a life of purpose.....

Answer 10

Impossible in this world since we have faith about what happens after death.