Constant Change

Constant change has become the underlying theme of the age – update your fashion, contrast your scenery, evolve your goals and upgrade your gadgets. After all, variety is the mother of enjoyment. If someone maintains the same job for over ten years they may well be viewed as dull, unambitious and dysfunctional. Stability and steadiness just isn’t valued in the same way. Being ‘original’ no longer relates to doing something authentic – it means to do something new! But does this constant adjustment improve the quality of life? Is the age of mass distraction leaving us perpetually restless? Have we developed an artificial culture that diverts us from the real source of satisfaction?

The phenomenon of constant change exposes the inability of external adjustments to satisfy our internal yearning. Looking for a ‘secret solution’ in material variety will never succeed in addressing our spiritual vacuum, since deep satisfaction goes beyond the immediate titillation of the mind and senses. Real fulfillment is born from the state of our consciousness, and excessive focus on the externals can distract us from this cardinal principle. Next time we feel the need to change our ‘externals’, we may want to stop and consider whether it’s really necessary.

There is something beautiful about simplicity and sameness. With the proper attitude, it can help one become more conscious, more aware and more reflective. When activities and surroundings remain consistent, it opens up unique opportunities to invest energy into the quality, purpose and consciousness with which one functions. Simple living high thinking. Having practiced an identical spiritual discipline and lifestyle for quite some years now, I’m beginning to appreciate how much depth it can create. Spiritual technology is timeless and limitless. Eternally perfect. No need for upgrades, add-ons or adjustments – just more attention and conscientious application on my part.

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Unconscious Competence

Sometimes it seems so hard to change. The ‘lower nature’ returns to haunt us, we easily slip back into bad habits, and annoying desires (which we thought were dead and buried) somehow re-appear. It’s frustrating and disappointing when one falls short of the spiritual ideals they seek. They know where they want to be, but it seems a far and distant reality. Will I ever come to the standard of purity I earnestly seek? Are these descriptions of the perfect character simply utopian ideals? How do I progress to perfection?

Lucky for us, the Bhagavad-gita is a book of supreme optimism. Even when faced with the disappointment of failure, there is still reason to take heart and smile. How so? At the lowest stage of ‘unconscious incompetence’, one's deficient character, destructive desires and wayward habits aren’t even a cause of concern. Only when one progresses to the stage of ‘conscious incompetence’, however, do they become aware of their defects and consciously feel the need to improve. That’s quite a jump indeed. Even if one’s behaviour hasn’t changed, the change of values is itself a great sign of progress.

Yet that should eventually mature into a change of character. From the stage of ‘conscious incompetence’, one next embraces the platform of ‘conscious competence’. Here, one makes a concerted effort to act in the proper way; often mechanically and forcibly, one trains themselves in a way of living that mirrors their aspiration. Even though it may feel mechanical and artificial, one is learning to be natural. Finally, in deep spiritual maturity, the proper behaviour and attitude becomes manifest from within, and one lives their ideals spontaneously, effortlessly and joyously. This perfected stage is known as ‘unconscious competence’.

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