Dear friends,

March has a quiet way of teaching impermanence without making a big announcement. Buds slowly begin to appear, weather shifts, the light changes. Plans change, moods change, bodies change. Life keeps moving. And the heart keeps learning how to meet that movement with steadiness, gradually.

In Buddhist practice, impermanence is not just an idea to understand. It is a way of meeting life more intimately. When we stop demanding that experience hold still, a new possibility emerges: we can relate to change with grace, humility, and less clinging.

Loving awareness as a way of meeting change

You may have noticed this: when something shifts unexpectedly — a plan falls through, a mood descends, a pain arrives — there is often a subtle bracing in the body, a tightening, as if the self is girding against what is already here. And then, sometimes, something softens. The breath deepens. The shoulders drop. There is a quality of presence that is both clear and kind, that can feel what is happening without fleeing it or fighting it. That is loving awareness. Not something we create, but something we remember; a quality of heart that practice helps us find more readily, and trust more fully.

When awareness is tense, change can feel like threat. When awareness is warm and inclusive, change becomes something we can feel directly, without being carried away by it. Loving awareness does not erase grief, uncertainty, or fear. It helps us stay present inside them. It softens the struggle with reality and gives the heart room to metabolize change rather than contract against it.

Sutta reading for the month

A simple, direct reading for March is SN 22.12, the Anicca Sutta (Impermanence). I like to return to this sutta because of how simple it is — no elaborate framework, no long buildup. Just a clear pointing at what is already true in every moment of experience. There is something almost relieving about its directness, as if the Buddha is simply saying: look here, this is what is happening, and seeing it clearly is itself the path.

Here is a short excerpt (Bhikkhu Sujato translation):

"Practitioners, form, feeling, perception, choices, and consciousness are impermanent. Seeing this, a learned noble disciple grows disillusioned … They become dispassionate … Their mind is freed.”

You can read the full sutta here: https://suttacentral.net/sn22.12/en/sujato

Practice for March

In your sitting practice this month, you might experiment with a few simple contemplations:

• Notice change in real time. Sensations shift. Sounds appear and vanish. Thoughts dissolve. Even a single breath is a small education in arising and passing.
• Track clinging with gentleness. Where does the mind tighten around an experience, a plan, a view, a person, an identity? Can you let this be information rather than self-criticism. A moment of honest seeing rather than a verdict?
• Add kindness to the moment of change. When something alters, ends, or slips from your control, try offering a quiet phrase: "Yes, this too.” or "This is how it is".

A helpful reframe

Impermanence can feel like loss, and sometimes it is. But impermanence is also what makes healing possible, forgiveness possible, learning possible, beginning again possible. Nothing is permanently stuck. The heart can be trained. The mind can soften. What is painful can transform. What is beautiful can be cherished more fully.

This month, may our practice help us bow to the truth of change, and may loving awareness give us the steadiness to meet life as it is.

With love, 

Adam Stonebraker

Resident Guiding Teacher

Mountain Stream Meditation