If You Want to Change the World

In how many ways do you want to change the world? My guess is— many. There is enough to do for all of us who dream of a better world. But the question is- do we know how to go about it? How does one actually change the world? Does one need an iron will, great wealth, influential positions, huge crowds to back one up?

I would suggest that we don’t need any of that. What we need is to understand the body-mind-consciousness continuum, and the easiest way to do that is to start with what we know best, our own body and the physical world around us.

Taking the First Step : From Body to Mind

From the reassuring materiality of the body, the first step forward is into the more abstract realm of the mind. Those of us who have taken a good look at both the material world and the mind have noticed that they are always a perfect fit. If we choose a lake as a metaphor for our body and physical world, then the sky will be the mind reflecting itself in it.

Such is the nature of our inner- outer world: always in synchrony, and always shifting together. The inner is abstract and impossible to hang on to, while the outer is concrete, but still running through our fingers with the flow of time.

The Ways to Change That Don’t Work

Many people try to change the world without having noticed the “mind sky” reflecting in it. They are focused only on physical things and the concrete actions involved in changing them. But if the mindset behind a physical structure doesn’t change, then even if we change these outer structures, they will soon revert to their habitual form. Trying to change our physical reality by addressing only the physical dimension is as futile as seeing clouds in a lake and trying to remove them there.

There are also people who have noticed that their physical body, along with the world that seems to surround them, are mirror images of the mind. Therefore, they try hard to change their mind, and sometimes, other people’s minds.

But even trying to change the mind is impossible if “I”, the one supposed to change everything, is the person, a body-mind combination. A person can do no more about thoughts and their physical manifestation than the lake and sky can do about the clouds passing by. In every moment, the person is that embodied mental activity.

Going Deeper: From Body-Mind to Consciousness

Does this mean that we have no free will and can not change anything about ourselves and our world? Not at all! But changing things requires us to access another, even deeper perspective.

In order to consciously change anything about the landscape, we need to notice the conscious observer of the landscape. The solution is not at the level of the physical or mental dimensions, but at the level of the silent, unattached, constant observer of the physical and mental dimensions.

When we release our attention from the contents of the mind (thoughts, emotions opinions, etc.) and the contents of the world (shapes, colors, sounds, smells, etc), what we eventually notice is a simple, quiet and aware presence behind it all. This presence in which body, mind and world appear is so unremarkable that it goes unnoticed by most people.

But it is this presence at our core that is our actual Self. When we realize this, we also understand that the whole landscape of mind-body and world is simply a constantly shifting creation of the Self, within itself.

Look at the sky, look at a lake… they are made of sensory perceptions and mental concepts evoked in the conscious Being that you are. So are your body and mind; they are images, sensations, feelings, and thoughts- all arising in the aware presence that is you.

Creating Change With Ease

If you know yourself to be the projector and observer of situations, you can easily change any situation consciously, through attention and intention. This takes no effort, at least no more than an intention to speak or walk. An intention is neither a physical action nor a mental activity, so it requires no physical or mental energy. Changing things requires not effort, but the depth of your own presence. Intention focused from this level sets in motion everything needed for the world-appearace to change, and your personal mind-body might or might not be involved in the actions leading to the intended outcome.

The realization of our real identity as the source changes everything. If you truly understand that you are not the mind-body, but the consciousness, the projector of mind-body and world, you lose all fear, anger, and frustration. How could you be afraid of your own creations, and what could frustrate you if everything was your chosen experience?

Then why don’t all my intentions change the world? you might ask. They do, but as long as your identity is attached to a character in the movie of life, your intention will be weak, conflicted, scattered and often opposed by the forces moving with a particular story.

Only when you have freed yourself from identification with a separate person will you be free to be yourself fully and play as you wish, molding the world of perception without hesitation, through conscious attention and intention, in the luminous, infinite field of awareness that is you.