The Opportunity Of Change
The most inevitable material fact of our universe is the one we have the stormiest relationship with. Either we fight it as it is appearing, or we mourn for it as it passes us by, but we are hardly ever at peace with change.
At every instant of our lives, change is guaranteed. We fight to keep it away, or work to get it here sooner because we think we know what should happen. We are certain (sometimes rightly!) that the change coming toward us will ruin or kill us. We think and hope that the right change will fix us (or them or it) once and for all.
There's the rub. Other than death, there is no "once and for all" regarding anything that is subject to change. If you take a moment now, you can ask yourself the question, "What changes?" Is there anything that does not change? Anybody, any situation, any location, any thought, any feeling, any opinion?
We may work for change in our political, social, or personal lives, and even rejoice when change appears, but all too soon we become fearful that it won't be enough or that it will disappear.
It won't be enough (nothing that is subject to change can ever be enough to truly fulfill us), and it will disappear. That's simply and starkly the nature of change.
Change is inevitable and yet even the worst is often ultimately not bad news, though it can be when it arrives. There are certainly deeply destructive changes that threaten us now as individuals, as societies and as a planet. We are right to work to bring about positive change and try to defeat negative change. We just have to finally face the fact of change.
Facing the facts allows for adaptation, or as recently said in politics, "being on the right side of history." We are in the midst of huge change in our country right now, and if we keep in touch through the media, we know the upheaval and hysteria that is accompanying it.
We can recognize and empathize with the anger, driven by fear of loss, in those who are desperately trying to keep what has already happened from happening. However they may be identified by both supporters and opponents, the essence of their argument is to bring back what has already changed. We have all tried that futile strategy in one way or another.
Historically, we know that those resisting essential changes can even be successful for a while. Revolutions can revert to what they were revolting against, we know we all personally regress in our emotional behavior at times, and dark ages can follow ages of expansion. Resistance to change can succeed, but only for a while, because change is a force that will not be denied. Fighting it can lead to some counter-change, but you cannot get back what has been lost. You may even get a semblance of "restoration" for a while, but change will finally have its way.
I've recently been watching an excellent BBC series, called "Mammals." It beautifully demonstrates the inevitability of change from the perspective of evolutionary time. It shows the emergence of mammals after the utterly disastrous change for dinosaurs. Over time, the documentary shows small night-scurrying animals evolving into planet-dominating creatures of power--the primates, elephants, humans, etc.
When I compare the magnitude of a multi-ton whale beside the cow-like, land-based earlier version, the force of change and the intelligence of adaption are obvious. When I hear that most of the species that have ever existed are already extinct, I recognize the fragility of us all.
If we are willing to admit to ourselves both that change is here and change is a force that is always coming, we can--paradoxically--take a moment to be still. At least for a moment we can stop fighting what we don't like and stop clinging to what we do like, We can let ourselves be humbled by forces beyond our control.
Here is the opportunity: in a moment of stillness we can recognize that through age and experience, through trauma and healing, through successes and failures there remains within us the same wonder that was revealed in our initial recognition of being. The initial I am sense is still here, unchanged. Life itself is still here, regardless of the uncountable changes in all life forms.
When our attention returns here we are fulfilled in ourselves, and then whenever changes occur, they occur around that fulfillment.
We may still fight for what we love, and resist what we think to be destructive, but we are no longer owned by those things that come and go. We are free in the midst of all that has changed and all that will change. What an adventure!
Gangaji is offering a Couples Retreat with her husband Eli at Esalen Institue Oct 18-23. She will have a public meeting Nov 5 and weekend retreat Nov 7-8 in the SF Bay Area. She will be in Sydney, Melbourne, and Byron Bay, Australia during November and December. Additionally she is having upcoming Gangaji Foundation teleconferencing events. Read more about Gangaji's events and catalog of books and videos online.
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Beloved,
deepest gratitude, your words spoke to my heart. The inevitability of change, what remains untouched? “Only-this-LOVE”, beautifully sung by Kirtana, is revealed.
What joy, the birth of my baby-girl despite a complicated labour resulting in Caesarean-Op. Since then I’m experiencing posttraumatic stress syndrome, post-natal anxiety & depression.
Meeting the unbearable pain during complications, energy was all there is. But when mind returns to struggle against pain, immense emotional, physical suffering was experienced then and is re-lived repeatedly.
It’s undeniably difficult facing these states of mind, emotions plagued with dire sense of helplessness, hopelessness and aloneness. Postnatals
I recognise the unchanging SILENCE that permeates before-during-after these changing-states.
I look into my newborn’s eyes, I recognise the ocean of LOVE that consumes me when I met you 3yrs ago. The paradoxical revolving-door of Consciousness, 38yr’o dinosaur, “shedding-
As you tour Australia, sadly I’m unable to flyover from the West. You may not remember me yet I rest in the embrace of your Grace.
Love-alway
You ask, "What changes?" And the answer is every-'thing' every emotion, thought, feeling, idea, even ideas of what should be changed change. But when, as you say, 'At least for a moment we can stop fighting what we don't like and stop clinging to what we do like, we can let ourselves be humbled by forces beyond our control.' In this humbling of mind there is the ever present opportunity to stop, be still, be quiet and really, patiently, wait and see what arises to be met.
The mind always wants to move to the past or to the present. And when I stop, following this endless movement of mind there is an opportunity to see, really see, That which never moves and never changes. And as you say, '...in a moment of stillness we can recognize that through age and experience, through trauma and healing, through successes and failures there remains within us the same wonder that was revealed in our initial recognition of being. The initial I am sense is still here, unchanged.
Gangaji---There is no end to the wonder that reveals itself in the vast unmoving Silence that is always present even in the movement of mind or the endless change of living in an ever changing world. When I turn my attention to That, living is truly is the most amazing adventure. I am in complete and total awe of That!
Love to you...
Jill : )
See Ed and Deb Shapiro's Profile
Hi Gangaji
you are clearm dear and
I love you!
Big Love,
Ed
The most beautiful description of change was the moment when the little Tulku asked Lama what is impermanence? in the Little Buddha. The Lama proceed to give an example that all the people that you see around you? They will all be dead in a hundred years. To live in harmony with change and not fight it. To grow old gracefully with age and not try to halt what is inevitable. To change for the better and not try to halt change with our stubbornness. The moment we are born changes take place immediately . Live in that moment of change and we will accept it as our wonderful teacher showing the various colors of our life in every changes.
Gangaji, in your book Diamond in your Pocket you write a great deal about the narratives that define our lives. It seems that change is acceptable once we are able to edit our narratives appropriately. If an event is a 'set-back' for some it's an opportunity to rise higher and for others it's a tragedy. The axiom, know yourself is really to know the type of story you are telling yourself and others and how.
Rolando
www.projec
What a beautiful posting and reminder this is to me. The title “The Opportunity of Change” really, really, is a beautiful message in itself. To stop for a moment, and truly think about opportunity of change, and then to stop the wheels of my mind from grinding and sense the entire platform of everything and the stillness which arises from the stopping. Gangaji, I don’t always consciously recognize the stillness, especially when burning in the middle of the change, (or I do, and I consciously choose to ignore it to feed a desire, etc. which ultimately, as you know, unfulfilling). However, when I take a moment to actually stop and be still then it somehow presents itself. I also salute bringing these messages via the internet. It lessons the singularity feeling of standing alone, when I know there is a also a network of other individuals also exploring and inquiring within.
I got changes that jingle, jangle, jingle
As I go merrily along
And they sing, ‘It don’t matter, not a tingle'
And that song ain't so very far from wrong
How the universe keeps returning her~himself to her~his essence through our individual looking glasses!
One time the character called “myself’ required deeper attunement to essence as essence…and deeper cleanse from identity.
The body took to reporting opposite feelings at the same time…so rather than feeling the excitement of building creations …that leads to grief…. that leads to action…. that leads to solution… that leads to loss… that leads to the excitement of building creations…round and round…rather than this, excitement and grief showed up immediately and simultaneously in any place focus was given. So focus was given back to heart alone…and even that focus fell through that heart , ideas that focus on heart was happening was taken also into shift...in
One time the mind took to reporting opposite thoughts simultaneously so no room for identity could remain. I heard, “you are needed here,” and “you are not needed here,” TOGETHER. The body/mind had no choice but to dissolve deeper than her perception of herself.
The changes kept moving about. What joy! What sorrow!! The Divine comedy! The Divine Tragedy! What beginning! What ending! All at once. Longing and Fulfillment!
Under this a huge bow and laughing JOY to great Graciousness, who takes us with tender care…in the eye of the storm s/he spirals through him/herself. S/he brings her/himself via our experiences back to stillness.
Dr. Laurie Moore www. animiracles .com
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