As much as I might try to explain how class ended yesterday, I couldn’t do the following passage justice.  Our yoga instructor ended with this, and while I find the entire thing very powerful, I think the image that struck me the most was the idea that our path is like ‘riding on a train backwards ~ we cannot see where we are going, only where we have been …. wisdom is whatever is going to happen to us today.’

In essence, this just further clarifies the impermanence of life, in a really positive, encouraging way.  I loved it, and my instructor was kind enough to send me the quote in its entirety, so I am sharing with you.

The Path is Uncharted

This path has one very distinct characteristic: it is not prefabricated. It doesn’t already exist. The path that we’re talking about is the moment-by-moment evolution of our experience, the moment-by-moment evolution of the world of phenomena, the moment-by-moment evolution of our thoughts and our emotions. 
The path is not Route 66, destination Los Angeles. It’s not as if we can take out a map and figure that this year we might make it to Gallup, New Mexico, and maybe by next year, we’ll be in L.A. The path is uncharted. It comes into existence moment-by-moment and at the same time drops away behind us. It’s like riding in a train sitting backward. We can’t see where we’re headed, only where we’ve been. This is a very encouraging teaching, because it says that the source of wisdom is whatever is going to happen to us today. The source of wisdom is whatever is happening to us right at this very instant. — Pema Chodron