Consume Change Through Change

By Amrit Sadhana

Change is the only thing in this world that remains unchanging. What we call life is a continuous flux -- people change, things change, landscapes change. If we look within, our emotions, thoughts, notions, beliefs are constantly changing. And yet the mind is averse to change. It resists change because it is comfortable with the old and the known. Change signifies new and the unknown. Considering this natural tendency of the mind, the Tantra experts have devised a meditation which asks us to meditate on change as the basic principle of life.
The meditation is : "Here is the sphere of change, change, change. Through change consume change.'' This meditation is basically a tool that can help us cultivate an attitude towards life. Osho has spoken extensively on the Tantra methods and has designed meditations according to their sutras.These methods are very effective as they give you a direct experience of the Tantra wisdom.
I was facilitating an Osho meditation intensive in Ludhiana, Punjab. It was a chilly winter morning and I selected a luscious rose garden to experience the sphere of change.
Obviously, there couldn't be a better environment to feel the subtle nuances of change. While the soft sunrays tried to beat the chill in the morning, a group of a hundred plus people were asked to roam about among the profusion of colors. Roses of various hues and shades -- from pink to purple to yellow to white. Big and small, all sizes and shapes. If you watched them closely, you could notice that they were in different stages of life: buds, half bloomed, in full bloom, withering and the withered. The leaves, too, varied in age, from the tender greenish sprouts to the dried brownish yellow. The meditators were moving around, consciously watching every phase of the rose bush that participated in living. It is so easy to perceive it in nature as all stages are right there, simultaneously in front of your eyes.
After watching the roses and absorbing their change, people started looking at other participants moving around. Weren’t they going through the same phases? Humans of all ages :young, middle aged, old, on the threshold of death... and one day they will be no more! Pausing in front of each person, looking into each other's eyes this unavoidable truth hit hard in the face. Was there any difference between themselves and the roses?

The same rivering of life could be observed in one's own life. So everybody sat down beween the rose bushes, closed their eyes and looked at the various modes of lives they had gone through. I asked everybody to revisit all the stages of their lives– childhood, puberty, youth, old age; changes in their bodies, thoughts, emotions, dreams, and now at the point of life they were. One day they will be withered like their fellow-travellers, the roses. Tears started rolling down some closed eyelashes. Moments of revelation!

With the revelation comes a deep acceptance: if change is the way of life why not accept it? If this is what living means, why not celebrate it? Isn’t it beautiful that we are all part of the ever changing flow; that a moment is never repeated, everything is ever renewing itself? Let us consume change through the change.This realization made everybody dance vibrantly, triumphantly. Yes, we know the secret! We rejoice in it!

After the meditation, one middle aged Sikh businessman came to see me. His eyes still had a moist hang over of a profound experience. He said, “It has been an eye opener to me. I used to resist change – in my factory, in the office, at home. I thought change was an insult to my decisions, as if it was my defeat. And due to this I had created a hard crust around me. People used to shun me. But today, for the first time, when I saw and felt the river of change outside and inside, I was shaken to the roots. I realized that by fighting change I was fighting life.”

This businessman represents most of the contemporary human beings. In the modern times the human mind is in great confusion. Life around is changing fast but the mind cannot cope with it. Once we realize that to exist is to change, we will relax into change and allow ourselves to be borne by the living current. A small realization that life is eternal, not permanent will help us accept change.

(This article was published in Complete Wellbeing, Deccan Herald, Lokmat Times)