seek and you shall find?
so you’re looking for the real thing, he said.
yeah. i’m tired of playing around.
you’ll never find it.
she looked at him, half disappointed and half intrigued. why do you say that?
he smiled. it’s not findable.
not findable?
it has a lifetime of a moment. and it doesn’t exist until you make it.
yeah?
yeah. he arched his eyes for a half second, then he smiled.
hers eyes opened a little wider. alright.
create, sustain, transform
in the world of existence, as well as in the world of Imagination, which may be two sides of the same coin for all i know, everything goes through the cycle of create, sustain, transform.
creation is pretty straightforward. something wasn’t here, and now it is. like computers, iphones, and babies. now of course we could parse creation and get into endless debate about the grey area between the glint in the eye and the emergence into formal reality. and we won’t. too many words in there, and too much doubt. let’s just stick with the basics. something wasn’t here, and now it is.
sustainment is equally simple. something exists. it continues to exist. how easy!
if only things didn’t go bumping into each other. yep. the rock hits the window and bam, now we have a broken window. now, using this simple example as a, er, window to the world of transformation, we can see that what is really going on with transformation is a heavy dose of destruction, followed by some instantaneous creation, which of course instantly shifts into sustainment.
good shiva, bad shiva
so in the hindu cosmology, the first step away from “everything all together completely undifferentiated,” is brahma, vishnu, shiva. brahma the creator, vishnu the sustainer, and shiva the destroyer.
which brings us to transformation, which seems to be a basic pulsation between destruction and creation. now, since we have such a negative view of destruction, it’s worth looking closer at this vital relationship between destruction and and creation, which leads to sustainment [you know...lying on the beach in the sun day after day]. and it’s also worth looking at destruction with a wider lens than we used for creation and sustainment. for our purposes we will look at 3 dimensions of destruction.
change we can believe in
if destruction is the scary face of shiva, raising images of fire and war, or horror and terror, then transformation is the adult face, and change is the young child.
- destruction is when something changes and loses some amount of value or functionality.
- transformation is when something changes and gains value or functionality, or remains neutral and takes on a different form or character.
- change is when something changes and it ain’t no big deal, or it makes a gradual move in a generally recognizable direction. kind of like children.
in our lives we deal with all of these energies on a daily basis, due to our propensity to bump into things. and depending on our alignment with grace, we experience more or less destruction, transformation, and change. and the happier we are with the results.
so here is the thing about change. sometimes we are happy with it and sometimes we are not. sometimes we see it coming and sometimes we don’t. and if we are relatively healthy and operating out of awareness, it isn’t all that challenging to dance about the sweet spot most times, and waltz back from the ashes of destruction as necessary.
and what does that have to do with the real thing?
oh yeah. it’s not out there waiting to be found. it’s out there waiting to be created, sustained, and transformed, lest it be created, sustained, and destroyed! keep you eyes open, and connected to your heart, and you can dance through the cycle of creation, sustainment, and destruction without destroying anything that you love. instead you can dance through the cycle of life nurturing and transforming your self and your relationships in real time. right now.
eyes wide open. heart wide open. the dance of shiva.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Seth 11.20.08 at 4:17 pm
Yo bro,
Distinctions on change, transformation and destruction were useful.
Now I know a little more about what you mean when you say, “sustainment” in conversation.
Keep up the creative lifestyle.
chas 11.20.08 at 9:04 pm
@Seth: yes…and what it might mean to sustain change!
keep up the good work, seth…