Keep the Change Habits are the pattern of memories, and the “past” is an excuse for our behavior in the “present,” both individually and collectively. The bond between “individual” and “society” is conditioning, tradition. The only proximity to “unity,” in our world, is in the sense of separateness which we commonly appear to share—our typical selfishness. We have shattered the vessel of the truth of wholeness, and we wonder why our lives seem barren and scattered. Not only in our materialism, but in our loneliness, our deep insecurity is reflected; and yet we are so mired in our patterns that we continue to stagnate. Our abiding problem is that we chronically desire something other than what exists in this present—the only real— moment; we typically wish continually for that which is not being given by our circumstances. Though the predictable is static and lifeless, we suppose that that is what we want. But the Dance of Shiva does not confine itself to one posture. It is the chaos in the mixing bowl which produces the cake. Only when we can harmonize with the present, critical situation is there any prospect that we will be able to harmonize with a change to a different status. We cannot expect to be an unmoving fixture in a reality which we hope will be vibrant and dynamic. We waste our energy in concerned anticipation, rather than assuming that nature knows what it’s doing. In each appearance of every thing, we fretfully note “differences,” and thus we conceive “problems”: these problems are not unrelated to our conceptions. To the extent that we conceptualize, we will un-earth problems.
312
