Discovering That Which Doesn't Change

Look back at your life, all the changes that have taken place, all the changes, major and minor, that you have gone through. Hasn’t there been something deep within you that has been aware of all these changes, that has witnessed or watched them, that hasn’t changed? Something deep within you that is silent, constant, and changeless that is reading these words right now?

I call this “the big R Reality” to differentiate it from the relative reality, which is everything we experience in our daily lives, everything that changes. People who have discovered the simple truth of happiness have found their identity in this, the “big R” Reality. They have realized their true nature and now they know themselves as aware, conscious beings. They are identified with the changeless, and not what is always changing. While they have a name, an ego, and a story, they don’t draw their identity from their name, their ego, their thoughts and stories, or what they do in life.

And yet they participate and engage fully in the “small r” or relative reality of the world. They live normal lives, but they no longer suffer, they are no longer caught in conflict. They are always, basically, at peace within and in the flow of life, responding creatively—with an open and loving heart—to the needs of the moment.

The Power of Thought

Thoughts have a very practical power. Everything human-made began as a thought, an idea, in someone’s mind. Everything, from the invention of the wheel over 6,000 years ago, to the microchip and nanotechnology today, had its origins in the human mind. The clothes we wear, and the houses we live in; our furniture, kitchens, cookbooks; the vehicles we drive, the books we read and the electronic devices we use; the aircraft flying overhead—everything began as an idea in someone’s mind.

What is the effect of realizing this? It is simple. The more you see that your thoughts are not real, precisely because they come and go, the more power you have to consciously choose them and shape them in ways that serve your own—and ultimately humanity’s—good. And, who knows, you may invent, come up with something new and wonderful yourself! But, at the very least, your thinking will be wise, creative, and will, most of the time, result in harmonious action.

Empty Space Meditation

Read the next paragraph first, then do the practice and play with the teaching…

Close your eyes, take a few deep, slow breaths, relax into yourself, and then imagine, or visualize empty space between your eyes… Between your ears… And then inside your head… Allow yourself to just be empty space, relaxing into your true nature for a few minutes… Or even five or ten minutes, however long you need to get a real feel for it… Then notice how the emptiness is at the same time filled with creative energy, rich in intuitive insights, ideas, and deeper realizations of truth… This creative fullness is there for you to use, whenever you want…

Now open your eyes, and observe how relaxed and at ease you feel, one with life and the unfolding of this moment… And again, read the next two paragraphs through, then close your eyes once more, and experiment with the teaching…

First, contemplate the realization that you are not your thoughts, but rather the ever-present awareness in which thoughts come and go … Then think a thought, any thought, and notice how it rises in your awareness, and then goes away, disappears, only to be replaced by another thought… You can even think specific “I” and “me” thoughts, but they too come and go…

Now, you’ve got to really see this, actually look within and watch how the thoughts and stories, and especially the "I" thought, come and go, pass in and out of your inner visual field, yet you, the seer, the experiencer of your ever-changing thoughts and stories, are always here, always present… The more you see this, and that you—the unchanging awareness or consciousness behind your thoughts—are still here, the freer and more at ease you are…

The Seduction of Story

We are a story-telling people, and our stories are important. They matter. We communicate through sharing and telling stories. Journalists make their living by reporting stories. Novelists tell made-up stories. Historians tell stories about the past, what has happened in human history. And ordinary human beings, in their relationships with each other, share stories about what they or others are doing, have done, or hope or plan to do.

But we are not our stories, because our stories, and the very thoughts and words that make them up, come and go, and we are what is always here. Reality, remember—Reality with a capital “R”—is what is always present.

Freedom, and the deep happiness and inner peace that do not depend on anything, comes when we realize this. It arises when we discover that we, as aware, conscious beings, are always here, amidst the ever-changing world of thoughts, stories, sensations, feelings, emotions, events, and circumstances.