Change Is The Reality Of Life & This Is Good

The only thing that is sure in the rift of life is change,

And we cling to the changes,

The transitory value of life,

Because we find security.

Now I think I've given you an example before,

That in the Himalayas a person has an accident and is lying in the snow.

Such a warmth envelops him that he does not want to get up.

Now,

If he would only exert his will to get up and walk around a bit to circulate his blood,

He would be saved,

He would live.

But in that warmth he has found,

Lying in the snows,

He loses his life.

Now,

That is the daily experience of all of us,

Because we are afraid of the unknown.

We stick to that which is familiar.

We stick to that which is familiar in spite of it being so unpleasant to us,

In spite of bringing so much suffering to us.

Now,

Common sense would tell us that we should evaluate relative existence with all its changes and try and see how beneficial these changes are to us.

Now,

We can still live in the changes and change the changes.

That is the secret of life.

What do we change?

We change that which is forever changing into changelessness,

Wherein stability could be found.

Now,

The fear of facing the future or turning away from that with which we are so familiar is a sure sign of instability.

It is a sure sign of lack of faith.

It is a sure sign in the disbelief of divinity.

Now,

What prevents us from wanting to change?

What prevents us from remaining in this suffering?

And yet,

Inwardly,

We would like to get away from this suffering.

And yet,

We are so tied down,

Bogged down,

Because of what we have been conditioned by.

Our minds,

As we have always discussed,

Is nothing but a product of conditioning.

I have known people going,

For example,

Into a restaurant and not wanting to try a different kind of food.

They are afraid.

How much joy is missed in life because we do not want to change?

We are afraid,

As we said just now,

Because of insecurities,

Instabilities,

A lack of trust.

The greatest things in life that could ever be achieved is not always to mind your step,

But to take a leap.

All the greatest things created in this world,

From the most fantastic bridges to the most tallest skyscrapers,

Everything,

Everything,

Everything,

You name it,

Is because a person was prepared to leap.

Now,

Even in leaping,

It should not be blind leaping.

Take,

As a businessman would say,

A calculated risk.

But are we prepared to risk our little ego,

That little ego that wants us to cling and cling and cling to life?

No.

Nothing wrong in clinging to life,

Because everything is life.

But what is our understanding of life?

That is the question.

Does life only mean the conditionings of which our minds is a product?

Does life only mean the mundane things to which we attach so much importance?

Is that really life?

And is that really living?

Most of us don't live.

We just exist.

And in this just existing,

We drift like a rudderless boat.

So there must come a time when a person must accept a higher value than the ordinary,

Mundane,

Changing values of life.

Now,

There are a few kinds of people that would be prepared for change.

The one kind of person that would change is when he reaches rock bottom,

When whole life has become too much for him,

He has reached the ground.

And when one falls down to rock bottom,

There's only one way he can go,

And that's up.

So when people go through the direst misery,

Remember there is an upward surge coming.

Always,

It's an infallible law.

So when we go through the worst suffering,

Do know that there is something better in store,

The storm before the calm that inevitably happens.

The other kind of person that wants to change his whole lifestyle would be the person that has gained some understanding.

It would be the person that has seen the futility of his present lifestyle and very consciously want to alter that lifestyle.

The first person,

The former person,

Is forced into altering his lifestyle.

The latter person,

To which many of us belong,

Want to consciously alter that lifestyle.

And in wanting to consciously alter that lifestyle,

We gain some understanding.

At first,

It is a mental understanding,

And that mental understanding later,

With conscious effort and the help of effortless meditation,

It becomes a realization.

Where every hatred can be turned into love,

Where every adversity can be turned into opportunity.

Now,

One must not expect dramatic changes,

Because that which starts very dramatically can also end very dramatically,

And you're back to square one.

So proper changes in life and changing one's lifestyle must come gradually.

And as it comes gradually,

The greater force it would have and the greater impact it would have upon us.

Have you ever seen a flower growing immediately after you plant a seed?

It takes time.

It takes time.

Therefore,

One has to cultivate patience.

And the very patience that is cultivated itself is a joy if we understand why we are cultivating the patience.

And as days go by,

And we develop newer and newer understandings,

Deeper and deeper understandings,

Then our attitude towards life changes radically.

Sometimes imperceptibly to us,

But so noticeable by others.

But ah,

This is not the person I knew six months ago.

And as one progresses,

It becomes encouraging.

And the more encouragement one receives and sees and observes and feels,

The quicker the progress on the path.

So what we have to do essentially is to wake up,

Is to wake up from this deep sleep that we are in,

That is causing the suffering to us.

And in that awake-ness,

In that wakefulness,

In that awareness,

We would find that we have stopped existing,

But now we have started living.

Now,

When a person really lives,

He inevitably will see life around him.

Now,

By that we do not mean people walking about and birds flying and animals moving around.

We can only see that movement according to the amount of understanding we have.

But when we really live,

Then we see pulsating life around us.

And life,

The pulsation of life,

Is the very joy of life.

We would see activity in everything around us,

For there is nothing in the relative field of life that ever stands still.

Even this human body changes every 17 days,

Where old cells are destroyed and new cells are built up.

You are not the same person physiologically today that you were 17 days ago.

So everything is forever,

Ever,

Ever changing.

But by living,

By learning to live,

We would find the beauty in the relative change.

And to find the beauty in the relative change,

As we progress on this path,

We very spontaneously infuse the changelessness in the change,

And thereby enhancing the value of change.

But that does not come about sleeping.

It comes about by being awake.

So there are many ways to achieve this.

A scientist that really wants to find himself can see that life through his microscope and see things teeming with life.

An artist can see the living life in the colours he blends in his painting.

The shoemaker can see the very life in the leather he stitches,

And the carpenter in the table he makes,

The musician in his music.

Everything has to be appreciated at its fullest value.

Our comprehension of things is at a very superficial level.

And because it is at a superficial level,

We cannot enjoy things very much.

And when we cannot enjoy,

Then we experience the opposite of joy.

And that brings misery and suffering to us.

So there is only one way out of the mess.

The way is to awaken ourselves,

Awaken the mind and the heart through our practices.