Is Change a Part of Time?

When we think of change we think of a goal.  I am this and I want to be that.  I am here and I want to be elsewhere.  I am poor and I want to be rich.  I am unhappy and I want to be happy.  To move from one place to another (psychologically) seems to take time.  But is time really an element of change?  Or is their something happening to us psychologically that delays change or creates the illusion of change.  If you read this Blog you will have read a much repeated line...."Change is in the moment or not at all".

A person can readily understand this statement on a superficial level.  But what is the deep psychological significance of realizing this in ones own moment of awareness?  It is possible to see something quite enlightening about oneself if you can realize change without desiring change.  Desired change takes time and quite frankly never happens as a reality of the moment. The Illusion of "knowing" creates the projection of desired change but not the reality of it.  So you see it is a kind of mind game that we play with ourselves.  We actually "live" the mind game and we repeat it over and over again.  We wonder why we cannot get there.   Some of us are clever, we create a game plan and involve others in desired change.  We organize in order to "get things done", to make a statement through numbers.  And though there may be some sought after alterations, it is always just a modification of what was.  Real change seems to escape the moment of intention.

Time is the illusion.  That there is a necessity for a period of elapsed time to occur between what is the moment and what could be or should be the moment.  One must face the fact that we largely live in the illusion of a conceptual reality.   Actual reality takes a conscious effort to negate the dream world and live in what is.  Time is our escape and failure to face a manufactured reality that limits change.  This is why it is very apparent that you cannot desire change and "arrive" at the reality of it.  Because firstly you must have the realization that the mind psychologically does not really want change because change represents the unknown.  The mind is caught in fear of change, of the unknown.  Our survival instinct wants the repetition of the known, what we "know" is safe, because it has already been experienced.  It seems comfortable and familiar, therefore why change?  To change in this very moment is "dangerous" to a mind that is caught in the illusion of a self that "knows".  A conservative mind is a dead one.  It lives in constant fear of losing what was, the illusion of a projected past.
So if you truly live in the moment then change is the only reality.  It is living in the reality of the moment.  The moment dictates what is and what is, is the new and never before from moment to moment.  It is the mind that cannot be defined, the mind that realizes the intelligence of spontaneous change and of living that change. 

The Need for Space

As life progresses it becomes cluttered with the psychological baggage of a persons search for security and definition.  The result of this accumulation is a mind that often finds its self in the midst's of disorientation and  disintegration.  The process of thought or thinking is the process of division.  We separate what is the defined self from what is not part of the definition and the identity of the now "named" individual.  As such the self and the other becomes our very limited reality.  There is very little space in this reality.  Without space one cannot see and understand the illusion of a psychologically manufactured reality. It is a reality in which we are constantly seeking affirmation of who we think we  are and what we believe.

When we refer to space we are referring to a state of consciousness that is without the conditioning of past experience.  A Consciousness that is without word, therefore absent of a self that knows.
It is not necessarily a meditation, because meditation that has a goal or purpose is still part of a conditioned consciousness.  Space is a moment of clarity which sees through the self and its petty motivations.  You cannot create space, it is the spontaneous release of all of thoughts accumulations, of all of ones beliefs.  In this absolute moment there is no self, no other.  There is only space, the interval between two word thoughts.  If you can see in that moment without the one who sees then something may happen that will bring about a change.  It will be a change that is without a goal or a presentment.  It will have nothing to do with the self as a defined entity.  It remains as an undefined element of the unknown. 

Space brings about a different level of intelligence.  Notice I did not say higher level of intelligence.  It is all together different and cannot be measured or weighed.  Comparative analysis cannot define its boundaries.  The human mind is spiritually very primitive.  Because the mind is constantly dividing, comparing and choosing it becomes caught up in its own reality of illusionary beliefs.  Beliefs that lead one down the the path of confusion, contradiction, fear, and violence.  Most of humanity is still quite Simian in its quest for power and influence.  Most still look up at the night sky in superstitious wonderment trying to find a repetitive pattern that will tell them the future so that one can go to sleep in the present.  That's what beliefs do, they put you to sleep.  One is lulled by the words of the "High Priest" be he political or religious.  And those words fill your head with the nonsense of Authority, the one(s) who "know".  And so you worship the known, which is really just worship of the self.

But if one can be consciously aware (choicelessly aware) in the moment, then that will allow space to unfold.  In that space you will see the truth of freedom that is without motive or acquisition.  Freedom that cannot be ideologically captured and taught.  Freedom that is absent the known.

A New Perception

We met at a small out of the way bookstore and coffee shop.  It smelled of incense and had a very Bohemian atmosphere.  The clerk was a small lady with a ready smile and an air of intelligence about her.  She directed my friend to a section of the bookstore that contained "New Age" books.  "Z" said to me,  "I want to find that new translation of the Diamond Sutra that you had mentioned.  "Ah! Here it is "L"."

We decided to stay and found a secluded table in the corner. "Z" was anxious to talk to me about a realization that had come to her last week.  We ordered some Tea and then she smiled broadly as if she might burst out laughing any second.  "L", "I had this most wonderful experience last week, which really brought into perspective my life and my grapples with various problems."  "Z" went on to say,  "As you know "L" I have been strung out over my relationship with my "Ex" and it has been a very rocky road, with all the emotional highs and lows."  "But after hearing you talk in the discussion group a few weeks ago about the fact that there are no problems except the ones we create, I began to seriously think on it." "It struck a cord with me, but I did not at the time fully understand what you were saying." "Then last week I was in the depths of despair and suddenly I realized there was really no solution to be found."  "That I am the problem and the solution as one movement."  " I mean it was so obvious and so simple." "I had this incredible moment of clarity that became a totally new way of looking and perceiving."  "It was as if my problems just ceased to exist."  "They no longer controlled me." "It was that Freedom that you often talk about, but you just can't put it into words."

I smiled at "Z" and felt her joy and her light.  In that moment I was also consumed with a feeling of freedom, it seemed to fill the room with a peace that was without any attachment or causation.  I said to her, truly your life has had a major transformation.  It is important that you not cling to it as something to be captured and repeated.  She said, " I know, I know,  but I just want to somehow tell everyone."  Tell people by living it in the moment.   People will see that you have changed.  Impart it to them by living the joy that is within.  Now you can live without conditions.  You will find that it is now possible to love without expectation or conditional advantage. 

Allow an acute awareness to overtake your thoughts.  Be passive in that awareness so that everything you see and touch reflects the oneness that you feel at your new found freedom.  Your mind will no longer be fragmented and subject to emotional speculation.  Allow every thought and feeling to flower independent of the one who observes and defines.  Live without seeking an end or goal.  Most important of all you have within your grasp to live totally without fear.  Because the emotionally charged problems that have brought you to this end are all based in fear.  So it is possible for you to understand the whole problem of fear its self.  And to this end the truth of love that is totally selfless.

"Z" said to me, "L" you have helped me to realize."  "You came along at just the right time, I am really speechless, I don't know how to express what I am feeling for you."  "How is it that you can speak to me, to the center of my being and cause such a powerful change?"  It has nothing to do with me, its all understanding that is within you, I have just pointed it out to you.  We laughed, hugged and parted.

An Unlimited Intelligence

Why do we believe that life is limited?  We talk and think about the limitations of our existence.  In our minds we define who we are.  We say that we have this or that profession, we go to the Church or Temple, we are politically left, right or independent, we culturally belong to this race or that.  And so we divide ourselves off, we distinguish ourselves from others.  We become "us" and "them".  We create division and with it suspicion, disharmony and ultimately fear.  In a sense we are what we have always been for hundreds of thousands of years, a primitive creature who thinks from a position of fear.  A slave to the monkey brain, who only understands through the instinct for survival.  To be sure we are technologically advanced, but our technology is only an extension of our fear, our out right search for the ultimate security.  The security of not forgetting what we know and of creating a machine that never lets us forget.  A machine that projects our inadequacies and defines our fear.

We study what we know.  We repeat it in a never ending repetition of what we call learning.  We live desperate lives of repetition, of wanting to know what is contained in tomorrow so that we can predict the future and continue to live in the illusion of thinking that we know.  We are afraid of the unknown on a very primitive level.  We cannot escape the fear, though we try desperately through various forms of mind altering experiences.  But we never seem to find the intelligence that will make us face the reality of what we actually are in the absolute moment.  What we are when there is nothing that defines us.  What we are when we discard all our beliefs.  What we are when we accept life as an insecurity.  Yes we are vulnerable, we cannot escape from it.  But vulnerability is where the mind finds peace and the possibility of something beyond the self.  Something that is not found in the escapist pursuits of the known.

There is a revolution of awareness that is moving through our DNA.  It has always been available to us but our evolutionary processes have blocked our realizing it.  We carry with us the evolution of the entire universe.  We are the culmination of all that has ever been and all that will ever be.  There are no limitations to the universe.  We are in fact that universe, we are not separate from it.  To realize that we have no limitations is to realize that we have no end.  Our consciousness is the the consciousness of all things.  Yet we think in such a limited self serving way.  Is it possible for us to realize that we (all of us) are responsible for all things.  For every word we speak, for every action we take, for everything we build and destroy.  Can we accept that responsibility totally and in the absolute moment decide to take a new direction.  One that it is absent the greed and self serving interest of a defined and therefore limited entity.  We have within us the "nature" of all things both sentient and non-sentient.  This is not some new age hocus pocus.  It is a fact and you can see and realize it if you are able to look with a mind that is not cluttered with the self and its imposed limitations.  These limitations are the illusion of a mind that is caught in its own defined self importance.  Intelligence is liberation.  It is Freedom from the known and the activity of knowing.

A Momentary Existence

Many people refer to what has now become a cliche', "living in the moment", but few really know what it means on a selfless level.  For most people it means a conscious decision to enjoy life in the now and live without obsessing about the past.  After all the past cannot be changed, it is what it is.  But living in the "absolute moment" is quite different.  It takes an acute awareness of the movement of self both as a defined entity and as one who has realized the undefined.  It is a choiceless and timeless awareness that lays the groundwork for an intelligence that is beyond the mind that is caught in comparison and conclusion.

To live in the absolute moment means that you are consciously aware of the movement of self as a separate entity that is in constant need of a defined image and purpose.  If you are aware, you begin through negation, to realize the illusion of a mind that looks at reality through the known (past).  The absolute reality is this, that we actually "exist" only in the absolute moment.  All else is minds concocted substitution, the illusion of thought as an entity that knows and projects what it knows.  Intelligence and clarity comes to one who lives a momentary existence.  In a very real sense one dies to the past.  A person throws off the prejudicial and incomplete memory of what was as a projected conceptual substitution of what is.  This may be difficult to completely grasp at first.  It is a revolution of sorts.  A revolution in the way one looks and understands.  It is a dissipation of the old so that one can see clearly the new and never before, the unadulterated moment and with that the truth of the self (true self).  With this comes understanding on an entirely different level.  Understanding that is without the angst of position and opposition.

When the state of a persons being is experiencing the absolute moment it is very freeing.  It seems almost euphoric in a sense.  But one realizes as the mind interprets, so the sense of euphoria must be negated and not held onto as something to be repeated.  A person must maintain that sense of "voidness" that allows the moment to unfold untouched by what has been.  This "emptiness" is the key to understanding that which transcends all that has ever been taught by the Sages, Buddha's andEnlightened beings of all time. All is illusion save the absolute moment.