Impermanence and the Land of Hope and Glory

'The British have a long history of cultural arrogance. Going out to save or civilise the rest of the world, to convert them to Christianity, correct them, free them from their Barbarian ways, is all cultural arrogance. It is no longer politically correct to think like this, which is good. But to get beyond attachments to ideals of democracy and equality and freedom as the Western conditioned mind conceives them, is through awareness. Just recognise this stillpoint, a centered, reflective attention to the present, and then cultivate that. Practice seeing the impermanence of the self-view, the sakkaya-ditthi, the impermanence of cultural conditioning, the arising and ceasing of thoughts, the thinking process.'

From The Sound of Silence: the Selected Teachings of Ajahn Sumedho. More on the impermanence of cultural conditioning here.

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