There is a divine dance going on in the universe, and we are all part of the whole, each one of us a strand in the proverbial quilt of life. Things are constantly changing and moving, the constant ebbs and flows of life, birth and death, on many levels: the sun rises and moves across the sky, then sinks, giving rise to the moon.

In a previous blog (“Perceptions: How the Mind Separates the Whole”) we learned how our perceptions create our realities, but changing perceptions is more easily said or read than done. To reiterate, things exist, I am here writing this. Brian is sitting here, but everyone in this café where I write this is perceiving Brian differently. Even I perceive myself as different from all of them. The Brian they perceive to exist exists only because of the mind that perceives it to. You think, “Brian,” and then fix me as some unchanging thing, but Brian is just a result of others, constantly changing like a flowing river.

We tend to fix others and even ourselves in this static position, unchanging, but the truth is that everything is flowing and changing. Every bite of food or bit of information we ingest changes us, and we change it as well. Every person we come into contact with, our various environments, all change us and we change them as well.

This is powerful when we begin to understand this because when we change our perceptions, we change the world around us. Gandhi said, “Our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world as in being able to remake ourselves.”  Again, things exist even though at times I hear people talk of how everything is an illusion. Well, this is partially true: the illusion lies in the perception that things inherently exist. Yet they don’t exist the way our minds judge them to exist, based on our views of the past. That’s the illusion or delusion often: they simply just exist as parts of the whole.

As we learned in earlier blogs, because of these views we have from our past we often relate to a limited, fixed self. We even say in our language, “I am angry or I am sick.” Some other languages are set up a little better where they say, “I have anger,” or “I have sickness”, or “I have anger arising.” These expressions suggest more accurately what is really happening. The Hopi language is even more accurate: there are no nouns. In Hopi, for instance, there are no clouds, but “clouding”; no stream, but “streaming”; no anger, but “angering.” This is similar to the Sanskrit expression for “ego,” ahamkara, which means “I (aham) making (kara), ” one’s ongoing activity of sensing oneself as separate from all else. In each case nouns are expressed as verbs, as ongoing actions that are constantly changing and thus capable of evolution.

On the other hand, when we fix the passing emotion, allowing it to limit who we are, we limit ourselves and fix ourselves as being that. Yet, logic and science prove that everything is changing in every moment. This is truth. I couldn’t finish this sentence if it weren’t: we’d all sort of be frozen here in time.  Fundamentally if there were no change, nothing could happen.

Much change we perceive as good. I love to watch the waves change shape and crash on the shore, technology changes at a rapid rate and gives us many amazing advancements in science. We also perceive much change as not so good. Our bodies age and become old and break down, our relationships change, and we often lose those that we love. Eventually there’s death: everything we hold will be gone sooner than we think.

Change can be stressful whether we view it as good or bad. When we really look, each moment disappears the instant it arises. This can be stressful, especially to us human animals, who like habitual routine. Time goes by so quickly: as soon as something pleasant passes by the mind, it’s gone before we realize it. Anything that changes is not a reliable source for lasting contentment or fulfillment then, is it? How could it be, it’s fleeting.  So where can we find lasting contentment? Seemingly nowhere in this world, which can be tiresome and daunting because as soon as we seem to find contentment or happiness, it changes, and so what we grasp at slips through our fingers as quickly as it came.

All the masters have taught that underlying all that changes there is something that stays the same—beginningless and endless. This is the peaceful stillness that pervades us all. Lao Tzu reminded us that “to know harmony is to know the changeless; to know the changeless is to have insight.” This is what some have called God, the Source, ultimate reality, the Tao, Brahman, Now, the void and so on. The fact is that this is not something we can intellectualize. It can only be experienced, and meditation helps us to familiarize with this, so we can begin to live this in even the most chaotic of situations.

We don’t have to realize enlightenment in order to experience this; we can begin to realize it all around us every moment. The world and your body changes every second, but you can always bring your awareness to the stillness, the peace in each moment. Using the breath is a good way to do this. We can bring our awareness to the present moment, back to our breath whenever we feel we begin to slip away into chaotic thought or situations. We can do breath meditation to train the mind to be present and less distracted by chattering thoughts. In any moment, we can use that constant of stillness to realize our limitless potential.

We were just talking about perceptions: our perceptions lead us to react in certain ways. For example someone says something to us and our habit is to react with anger. We can practice stopping, and like all things the anger (or what the Hopi would call the “angering”) will pass (fade away like a “clouding”). Perhaps we go for a walk or use writing to allow it to flow through us, and in that space of stillness we can then create what we want skillfully in the situation. We can now begin to use wisdom (seeing clearly) as opposed to delusion to create our reality. We now begin to become conscious creators as opposed to reactive animals. Again, mindfulness is the key, and meditation helps to cultivate mindfulness.

Lao Tzu said, “If you realize that all things change, there is nothing you will try to hold onto.” He also reminded us that, “contentment alone is enough. Indeed, the bliss of eternity can be found in your contentment.”

Everything is temporary. You can remind yourself of this when you are going through a hard time or when anger or jealousy or any other painful emotion arises. Know that it will arise and pass away, like all things do. There is no reason to grasp at it or engage in it, simply accept it and realize that it too will pass away. The proof that our nature is peace and joy is that when the delusions of anger and so forth pass by, we are left with peace.

Inertia is when you throw a ball up in the air, it pauses before it comes back down. That pause—the space between breaths, the space between thoughts—is the silence where creation takes place. Like a beautiful composition of music, it’s the space between the notes that creates the music. We can all learn to tap into this by simply learning to stop and breathe.

How we can use this space to create?

Here are some points on this powerful creation process:

When a situation arises causing a negative, reactive emotion, we practice stopping. (We can write or go for a walk, but do not engage the afflictive emotion or suppress it.)
Once the emotion moves away and we can come into that peaceful stillness, we can begin to insert what we wish to create. (We can substitute generosity for miserliness, compassion in place of hatred or confidence and trust in place of jealousy.) In this way we are now creating our reality consciously as opposed to having it created unconsciously, led by our delusions. We can now skillfully think, What do I wish the outcome to be? We can become conscious creators now within that space.
Watch our reality begin to reshape: be patient and persistent and you will see amazing results.

An excerpt from “Small Steps to Giant Leaps”