I had the opportunity this weekend to look through a box full of old photographs at my Grandmother's house. As I looked lovingly at relatives no longer with us and myself as a child, I realized something very simple, yet profound at the same time. A "snapshot" captures a brief moment, a moment in time. If one were to snap a dozen photographs in a row, one would capture change. Expressions, movement, position - but also growth, down to the minutest level that we can't even perceive. Trees in the background, people, animals, the air, the Earth and the position of the planets and stars. All is constantly changing.
I thought of that and it seemed like an oxymoron - constant change. It was a flip-flop way of thinking. The only thing that remains constant is change. So why, as human beings, are we so resistant to it, so upset by it, so afraid of it?
A good example of this concept is the movie "Office Space" - a humorous satire of Corporate America based upon the cartoon Dilbert. Dilbert (like billions of human beings on this planet) is a person of routine. He structures each day around a series of actions and thought. He gets up in the morning and performs the same actions as the day before, drives the same route to work and performs the same duties at work in the same location every day. His illusion is that he lives in an environment of the constant - that he remains constant in his environment, that everything remains the same. Until one day, his boss strolls up to him in his "space" and tells him it's time for him to relocate. Dilbert "freaks out" - he can't think, he doesn't understand, he worries, he grabs his stapler - can he keep his stapler? In addition, he has to move to an undesirable location on the lower level. He doesn't know if he can go on with his life - how can this be? He becomes almost completely incapacitated. He becomes afraid and becomes resistant.
If Dilbert had been consciously aware of his environment, he'd realize that change is inevitable, that he is right in the middle of it - even a part of it. He, like each of us, lives in an evolving existence in a consistently evolving world. We must be mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually prepared to embrace change."He just needed to be more in control," you might think. Then let's consider the guy upstairs from Dilbert, the "mover and shaker" that is making things happen. The guy in control - working things to his advantage; the self-improved guy following the principle "How to win friends and influence people" - the manipulator, forcing change believing that he's totally in control of his life, his environment and others around him. He's the "I'm going to make a difference and people are going to love it" guy. This is the person that is actually MORE intimidated by change - by anything that evolves on its own without asking his permission. He's the type that freaks out because he "had a handle" on everything but somehow something out of his control changed, and his whole illusion came crumbling down around him. This person becomes afraid, angry, frustrated, resistant, baffled - then sits down, adds this new variable to the equation and is off again "making it work, making things happen," recreating his illusion of control.
So how do we accept that we're on a roller coaster ride of constant change? Better yet, how can we remove our illusion that we are always in control of our life? Margaret Hone, an astrologer, wrote: "The ideas of correlation and synchronization give a better idea than that of cause and effect." Huh? Ok, do we want to be proactive or reactive? Do we proactively prepare ourselves and adjust to the reality that all is interconnected and shit happens? OR do we wait for something to change or someone involved to change their mind then react to it? We're all interconnected. The outcome depends upon those involved. If all stays the same, we can predict the outcome; nothing changes. If one person exercises free will and changes their mind or acts randomly, outcomes change. The old Karma view of "one life's activities causing a future life's ills", therefore, may be better explained that the past, present, and future are interconnected with one another and act upon one another - and that the present Karma is not just influenced by the past.With that in mind, Dr. Dean Radin, author of The Conscious Universe says,".... in the extended view of interconnectedness, especially in light of psi, quantum field theory and general relativity ... As both modern physics and ancient Buddhist doctrine suggest, 'deep' interconnectedness embraces everything unbound by the usual limitations of time and space."The focus of my thoughts, as I looked through those old photographs of my family, flowed over to perception. Unfortunately, we impose limitations on ourselves and the way we perceive change, time and space. During times of change we may overreact out of the fear of an unknown future. Old patterns can be triggered and we might judge others and ourselves harshly unless our thoughts are in balance with our emotion. Is our daily happiness aligned with a false sense of security or with a deep set knowledge and understanding of ourselves and our abilities? How do we choose to empower ourselves?Subsequently, when we allow ourselves to be pulled off our healthy "center" it can set off negative emotions and sidetrack us rather than foster thoughts aligned with more positive patterns of trust, faith and open-mindedness associated with personal growth. Our mind energy whirls out of control, taking over our physical and spiritual energy. We feel threatened. We begin to shake and our spirit energy declines. And, if even for a fleeting moment, it inhibits our progress in understanding our true place within the universe, our purpose and our future without fear. In order for us to personally grow and attain true self-realization, we must remove the self-imposed boundaries that hold us back. We must step outside of our comfort circle and realize that we're o.k. to face challenges and release fear. And, fear is negative faith. Remember the next time you take out an old box of photographs that it is in the present you are looking at individual moments of the past but you are actually in the future of when the "snapshots" were taken. We separate time into past, present, and future so we can understand it within the boundaries of our 3-dimensional existence. But wasn't the subject in the "snapshot" actually changing, evolving when it was taken?
With a knowledge of interconnectedness, and no limitations of time and space, we can see that psi energy does not travel from point A to point B halfway around the globe. All mind exists everywhere at once, though all of it is not known to the conscious awareness of every person. In the same way, the future is not bound by temporal limitations. Past, present, and future interact with one another, and are separated only by appearance to our conscious awareness in this dimension of existence. Copyright ©2003-2012 Anna Webb
