Tenzin Samten (Ian Ellis)
April 3, 2025
Reflection On Self
I gaze upon this stranger in the glass,
A face transformed by time's relentless flow.
The boy I was seems now a dream that passed,
His cells, his thoughts—where did they all go?
These hands that type were not the hands that played
In childhood streams beneath a summer sky.
The thoughts that form, in moments, bloom and fade,
As memories dim and yesterday's truths fly.
I search myself for something that remains,
Some core that stands unchanged through shifting years.
I find instead a river with no name,
A current shaped by laughter, love, and tears.
What is this "I" that claims to own this form?
This consciousness that rises with each dawn?
A pattern dancing through both calm and storm,
A story told, revised, and carried on.
Not fixed, but flowing—moment linked to next,
A chain of causes yielding fresh effects.
Not thing, but process—never truly fixed,
A pond whose surface every ripple reflects.
Perhaps the self is not some hidden pearl
But rather like the flame upon a wick:
A dance of energy as life unfurls,
No essence there—just change, alive and quick.
The child I was, the elder I'll become,
The stranger in the mirror staring back—
All waves upon an ocean, not just one,
All footprints on a vast, unending track.
I am not nothing, yet not something fixed.
I breathe, exist—dependent on the whole.
A temporary gathering of bits,
A pattern, not a separate, changeless soul.
The freedom in this truth begins to dawn:
If not a solid self that must endure,
Then I am free to change, transform, move on,
To flow like water—humble, strong, and pure.
~ Tenzin Samten (Ian Ellis)
--- About the Author ---
Tenzin Samten (Ian Ellis) is an SBT Lay Ordained Sangha Member.