Our Constantly Changing Cosmos

Our Constantly Changing Cosmos

We tend to think of ourselves as a “permanent structure” to which change is occuring.  Perhaps it would be more useful to view ourselves as a constantly, changing phenomena that is “structuring change” in particular and predictable ways.

We (the I part of we)  are one of the 10,000 (limitless) things that emerge from this universal play of constant change. We are simultaneously acted on by this change and are the act of change itself.

Here we can see structuring as a swirling, spiraling dance between constructing and deconstructing, forming and unforming, gathering and letting go, birthing and dying.

The very nature of this changing dynamic is itself constantly changing in time and space.

What is perceived from one perspective, as a death,  is from another perspective, a birth.

What is one moment a death is the next moment a birth.

As a particular structuring phenomena moving through time and space we interact with and are interacted on by an infinite number of other “change structuring phenomena”. We are simultaneously awash in and engorged with the structuring and destructuring universe that is the cosmos and beyond.

This constant change can be experienced in cycles. The breath cycle, the daily cycle, the monthly cycle, the yearly cycle, our life cycle. Our inhalation & exhalations, our rising from and going to sleep, the dark moon to the full moon, winter to summer and our birth to our death.

All & always the constant interplay that is our constantly changing cosmos.

Tasting the World: Our Outer Gates

We have this concept.

There is “us” (we call it “I”) and there is “outside of us”, i.e. the world.

The “I” in us has a drive to connect with the outside world. We are born with the desire and the capacity to fulfill this drive.

Our sense of connection to the outside world , (an outside of us we created or recognized, depending on your world view)  is born with us, a gift from our ancestors.

How deep that sense of connection stays as adults is determined by the “world” or environment in which we grow and develop.

All of us, at one time, related to the world outside of us, in a robust and multi-textured way.

Our wisdom ancestors sensed and knew that the world that is beyond our selves is same and part of the world that manifests within us as well. The infinite gifts of the earthly and celestial landscapes, the moon, stars, sun, the coming and going of light, the sounds. The primary sensory experiences of the world: smell, touch, hearing, looking, conversing. This is the learning ground for our  Yangwei: our Outer Gates. Here we develop our capacity to meet the world with elegance and grace and joy.

As adults, we can find our selfdialoguing with another human, whose perspective is deeply calcified and unchangeable, trying to convince them to come over to our entrenched and calcified view.  This is “normal”.

We call a dialogue with a riveror cloud or bird, madness. Even though that river or bird or cloud is giving us the gift of openness and emptiness so that a genuine dialogue may occur.  Dialogue, Dia: meaning across  Speech that moves across, from one space to another.  Across our boundaries. Across ourfixed positions . Our positions are our prison walls..Cultivating our Outer Gates, our capacity to meet the world with emptiness,  leaves us truly open, not vulnerable, to the new.

How empty must one be to “see” or allow across the viewpoint of another?

To truly taste the opinion of another ? To feelall of itfully and safely within our selves? To let it dance right below our surface ?  To see what where we can make value from even the most seemingly repugnant ofexternal influences.

To “get it” and then “let it go” allows you to understand where that opinion “lives” in others. What that “opinion” is made of ?

To taste the world outside of our selves in all its flavors and with joy.