Choosing to Change

by Daniel Doen Silberberg | Feb 16, 2009 | Uncategorized, Zen

So, an important part of our practice is deciding to choose what is.  What I am often asked next is:  what if I’m in an unhappy marriage?  What if I hate my job?  Does that mean I need to choose to stay in that situation?
 
Absolutely not.  That view is too simplistic.  Choosing what is, choosing to be where you are, is another way to speak of being in the moment.  In other words, you’re not choosing a situation, you’re choosing the moment.  So you’re sitting there in a crummy marriage, feeling a certain way, you’re choosing to be in the crummy marriage, you’re choosing to be alive to being in the crummy marriage.  You’re in the moment.  And at the same time, if you want to, you can be choosing to figure out how to leave.  Staying in the moment of “what is” and at the same time choosing to change “what is” aren’t contradictory. 
 
You don’t have to choose to be stuck where you are.  You choose to be where you are.  Where you are might be “in the midst of change.”  But then be with the process of being in the midst of change and don’t hold your breath until the change has occurred.  If you’re in turmoil, choose to experience that turmoil.  You can also choose a plan that you hope will get you out of turmoil, but then you’re also choosing to be with that, in the flow of moving.  In other words, you’re with what you’ve got, you’re choosing to be with what is, choosing to be in the moment, even if that moment is “movement” or “chaos” or “change”.  Wherever you are in your life, at any given moment, when you accept that completely and choose that, they say that is enlightenment.